Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men
by The P.B.G
Summary: A small series of chapters following a sub-story within the Full Moon High Universe created by Stone-Man85, please look at his work before reading.
1. Prologue

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men**

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 **Disclaimer**

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Goosebumps is owned by Scholastic Publishing

The Full Moon High universe was not created by me and all related characters were created by Stoneman85 who gave permission for me to write this story.

It is highly recommended that you read his work: as this story takes place between chapters 21: 'A young girl and her love' and 22: 'The Foxes and the Talon Part 1'

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Prologue

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Monsters: a term used to describe something of repulsive appearance, immeasurable size and pure evil. A creature which is so alien to us, so dangerous and cares so little for anything other than the destruction of all things good and wholesome, that it must be stopped in order to protect the innocent from its schemes.

Tales of such beasts have existed since the dawn of mankind, creatures of half lion and eagle, massive hulking beasts that destroy all before them and those which take on the form of a man to corrupt society from behind the scenes.

But in today's modern age these beasts are seen as purely the work of writers. Fictitious characters from stories made to pose as the villain, something so different that it cannot be possible human, and thus bear the weight of all things wrong in the world.

But they are real. And like so many times in history what is different is not evil, but purely misunderstood.

Monster: a term used to describe something of repulsive appearance, huge size and pure evil. Repulsion is merely a perspective, size does not equal mindlessness and evil is a label given to many a thing to turn it into a beast: something that is not human.

But as history shows humans are capable of just as great in not greater levels of evil, injustice and hatred born of misunderstanding. Fear pushing us to protect ourselves from what is and is not a threat. And in that blind panic to protect what we love, friends become foes, enemies become necessary allies and what is good is no longer clear.

Things that should be remembered are forgotten, and what is truth is very frequently lost under a pile of lies we used to justify our actions.

That is nature of a legend, its characters and the creatures from it: and does that not make monsters but the victims of legends.


	2. Chapter 1: Part 1: Food for thought

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men Chapter 1: Part 1: Food for thought**

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Shepard High school, a relic of the 1950's Washington state educational system was in full buzz: the half cathedral looking building was in complete uproar as it was a Friday, the final day in a long, rather tedious school week and the various students were heading with mix dread but some joy to the cafeteria. It was the last day of Health week. Announced a month ago the school had put the plan into effect to turn the cafeteria over to 'healthy food' cooking fresh meals with fresh ingredients for a whole five days, all to encourage better lifestyles in its students. As in most cases when a school tries to push a healthy alternative the plan had failed miserably as the students had not stopped complaining about the undercooked food, that was dry, bland and certainly, in their eyes, unfit for human consumption. Most had begun to pack food in their bags and eat outside the cafeteria, a few even ducked out and back into school to grab food from nearby shops, and there had been more than one fight caused by the school bullies as a direct result of their new almost vegan like diet.

Indeed the copious amount of vegetables that seemed to flow from the cafeteria through that whole week, which was only made bearable by the small heavily grilled biscuit sized piece of meat they were served with the tasteless food. But its tiny size would make any human find it difficult.

Peter Talbot was finding it better than most, sinking his teeth into the stake he had packed with him, as the hidden werewolf made short work of his afternoon snack. Across from him sat Mikey who had also brought a large slab of meat, although more out of a desire to avoid the horrendous food that was being served up a then his own more meat craving tendencies. On Mikey's left hand side however rested Kylie, the purple haired girl absently poking what looked like mushy carrots and pees rolled into one disgusting mess with the tip of her fork.

Wrinkling her nose the small girl, who had only recently been turned into a werewolf, like the other two, couldn't help but voice her disgust. "This smells worse than yesterday" she murmured, lifting a small pile of the substance onto her fork eyeing it with distaste.

"Well we did tell you that you would have to get used to enhanced senses" Peter muttered, polishing off the last of the meat with a smile, earning him a slight glare from Kylie.

"I know" she mused putting the food into her mouth and pulling a face, "it's just that well, why did they have to announce it right after I well…" she looked around before whispering, "transformed."

Peter nodded at the girl who was now giving quotation marks with her fingers, remembering when he first had underwent the change a few months ago after spring break, the craving for food, practically meat , getting almost ravenous, although never dangerous. Despite that he could sympathise with her that these new healthy 'alternatives' would be near painful for poor Kylie, still apart from that she was doing quite well for her first week.

Mikey however was absently looking over at Kylie, a grin visible under his dense hair a small sense of amusement and pride in his freshly announced girlfriend. The news that the two were finally a couple had been met with some happy fanfare from within the pack, and people around the school had openly said they deserved each other. Although it was more a gilded insult due to Mikey's perverted reputation of taking photos of women, and Kylie's status as a 'goth'. Although the latter was inaccurate.

Speaking of photos, Mikey looked away from Kylie and back to Peter nodding at him, "err Peter I won't be able to come out tonight" he stated, both of them knowing about the planned night patrol the two had laid out, in their 'never ending crusade to protect Everett from criminals.' "I have to finish developing the photos from last week, before well you know."

Peter nodded remembering the fight that had broken out in the school gymnasium, when on a full moon Mikey and Kylie had gotten trapped in the school by a gang of curious monster hunters. It had ended only after an accidental 'love session' between the two wound up turning the latter into a werewolf and saved Mikey from an overzealous shotgun wielding attacker. All of which had gone down in Peter's mind as the strangest turn he had ever heard of: in and out of fiction.

"Know what" came a voice, causing Mikey to jump in surprise.

Looking up the three of them saw Christie Argent, her auburn hair hanging unusually loose, rather than in a ponytail, a tray of the same sludge Kylie was eating held tightly between her hands.

"Erm" Mikey and Peter began trying to find an adequate excuse that didn't tip off their human friend about the three's secret lives.

Peter spoke up first "hi Christie, your hair looks nice" he managed to mumble out.

"Is this about the break in" Christie asked ignoring her friends comment, stepping over the table's bench and sitting down next to Peter?

Trying to hide his knowledge about last week's incident Peter tried to act confused voicing himself in a puzzled fashion as he ate the last of his steak "Break in?" He was secretly thankful that Christie had closed her eyes when she had swallowed a bite of her food as hiding his nervous look at Kylie and Mikey was a lot harder than he had expected.

"Yeah someone broke into the school Cafeteria last night and stole some food; I overheard the lunch ladies talking about it."

Undisturbed Christie continued eating her meal, although with some clear difficulty, but Peter and Mikey were quite surprised at hearing about the break in. A question which hung in the back of Peter's mind, that was until a tray of food went hurtling his way and slammed into the back of his head.

Kenny Harper could be heard roaring with laughter, as the brown hair bully and his gang of fellow idiots laughing at the misfortune of Peter.

"Dam it Kenny" yelled Christie, as she stood up on the table, glaring back at the annoying boy, Peter meanwhile wiping off the potato and lettuce out of his hair.

"You know" Peter mused almost in surprise as he picked up a soggy piece of lettuce, before throwing it aside "I am more surprised how he did that only today."

Later as they left for class Peter was bumped into by one of the other members of the pack, Ashley Northwest, the attractive blonde girl sneaking him a note on which she had scribbled a small message.

' _Dear Peter'_

' _Sorry me and Maria can't make it tonight, got training for the school, Derek said he can make it though. Hope Kylie's coping with the changes, still no sign of Sarah.'_

' _P.S rip this note up for safety'_

Tearing the paper quickly on finishing it Peter signed as he absently threw it into a passing bin, once again trying to clean the last chunks of food from his untidy black hair: before walking into his lesson: looks like there would only be three of them tonight.

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Later that day Peter laid back in a chair in the schools darkened development room, absently reading a comic book by the dim red light as Kylie and Mikey begun the slow work of turning the black pieces of card from cameras into developed photos.

"Steady, steady… steady" Mikey muttered as he slowly lowered the unfinished film into the development fluid, gently resting the row of pictures into the liquid.

"So how many are these for the paper, and how many are personal" Peter asked as he sat a distance away from his childhood friend.

Mikey shot him a sly grin from under his mop of hair, as he slowly worked his way over to another batch of unfished photos. "Can't tell Kathleen has made enough threats to blackmail me into stopping."

Peter rolled his eyes "but you still do it" he murmured, with a small laugh?

Mikey shot Peter a Grin before turning to Kylie who was happily sitting on the edge of a nearby table watching Mikey work.

Seeing that they were getting along well Peter grabbed his bag and went for the door, turning back at the last moment to check they were alright. "You two sure you are going to be fine, last time you stayed here there were the hunters?"

Mikey waved him off "yeah, yeah we will be fine; they won't pull a stunt like that any time soon." He stated casually "plus it is not a full moon so there's no chance of them guessing what we really are, even if we did come in."

"Not unless we jump up and down and yell it at them." Kylie added with a grin

Peter looked at her in a bemused way, not sure how to react to that statement and walked towards the door and stepping out into the evening lit corridors of the after hour school.

Once outside he took a deep breath and was ready to start heading back to Talbot Hall, and move onto a later night of protecting the city. Still as he turned to go he bumped into someone. Someone he had never seen before in the whole school.

Looking Down Peter saw a rather short boy, slightly shorter then Peter, in a woolly white hoodie jumper, covered in dirt stains and slightly flayed towards the bottom. His black joggers were torn and his sneakers ripped, and he kept his head pointing straight at the floor using the hood to hide his face.

A second, much taller girl stood behind him looming over Peter and the boy, shooting the former with a cold stare with her light green eyes. She too was wearing a black hoodie, but blue jeans, in equally poor quality, her black hair coming down out of her hood over her shoulders and resting near her stomach. The whole while her face was partially obscured by the shadow of her hood, which would have made it hard for normal people to make out her expression, but then again being a werewolf made her attempts mute.

"Excuse me said the girl" who shot Peter a smile before walking on.

"Sorry" blurted the other person, who nodding his head hurried past heading down the hall towards the cafeteria.

The Cafeteria, the cafeteria that had been robbed: and now two strange people just so happened to walk past him on their way to said room, a good few hours after school was finished. 'Yeah it didn't take a genius to figure this one out' Peter thought, waiting until the two individuals were out of sight before ducking back through the door he had just come out of.

"Hey guys" he called back to Kylie and Mikey, only to look away in surprise.

The two were, or had been sharing a sweet kiss, nuzzling up against one another, but had quickly backed away from each other once he had re-entered.

Mikey, rather flustered blushed and grinned awkwardly back at Peter "Err yeah" he asked with a sheepish grin.

Peter sighed and beckoned them both to follow him: 2can you come and check this out please: I think something is going down."

"Sure" Kylie smiled catching the tone in his voice, and nearly running to the door in a peculiar mix of sudden embarrassment and egger interest.

Taking a few seconds longer as he pulled the photos from the fluid to prevent their damage Mikey followed suit: carefully opening the door just a smidge before following the two.

Obviously making a joke he prodded his friend with a question "So Peter what's up, Hunters again?"

"You shouldn't joke about that" Peter stated in a stern tone as the three of them walked down the abandoned corridors towards the cafeteria, "I saw two strange people head in here" he motioned to the door "thought it could be the thieves Christie mentioned, just wanted some back up when I check it out."

"Strange how" Kylie asked opening the door slightly as she glanced in.

Peter mused as he tried to find the right words: "I didn't recognise them for one; there have been no new transfers to the school?" He asked turning to Kylie as they all creeped in?

"Not as far as I have heard"

Peter nodded before continuing his story as he looked around the room: "well they were our age… but well… they were dressed in rags."

"Rags" Mikey asked with a bemused smile.

"Yeah, like someone had run them over with a mower, there werer two of them: one was a boy and one was a girl." Peter asked now looking around the deserted room, keeping his voice down.

Mikey grinned on hearing this and without a second thought asked one of the most prevalent ideas on his mind "Was she hot?"

As Kylie shot Mikey a sideways look: Peter checked under the tables, curiously finding the whole room deserted. For the first time in his life he actively considered how big of a room the cafeteria was, almost, if not bigger than the gymnasium main hall. It was surprisingly roomy when it was not full of students, and bullies. He absently scratched his head where the food had hit him: as he took in the almost defining silence of the room.

Suddenly something metal dropped on the floor and clanged loudly as it bounced, the noise quickly dissipating, but none the less caught the three of them off guard.

"That wasn't you" Peter whispered looking back at his two friends, knowing full well it wasn't?

The two shook their heads, Mikey looking around and Kylie taking a very serious and scrutinous look around the whole room, a small smile creeping over her face.

"Oooh, this is exciting" she smiled, as she made her way towards the kitchen door.

Peter shook his head as he followed his enhanced hearing likely leading to the same conclusion as Kylie, that whatever made that noise was in the back of the cafeteria, behind the serving trays and the normally closed doors. Indeed as the three of them made their way closer they began to hear the faintest echoes of whispers: way to quiet for any human to hear: however even in human form being a werewolf had perks. Placing his hand on the two way doors: Peter placed his ear against the wood and carefully listened to what was going on in there: a surprising sense of satisfaction filling him knowing his suspicions being proved true.

"We don't need any more potatoes" a female voice said in what was a hushed whisper, her tone carrying a smooth English accent.

"Would you prefer rice" a second voice asked in a similar accent only to be followed up with a slightly saddened tone "ah… scratch that they don't have any."

"Focus" the girl's voice growled with authority, "just find the essentials and we will go out the fire exit."

"Okay, okay, let me just find the right ingredients: we won't be hungry tonni… ah found it."

"Found what?"

"Chilli powder… ah no: it's expired: wow 2010, this place has bad food."

"Who the heck cares you twat" the girl growled again "just grabs some vegetables and let's run."

Peter had heard enough: still it was interesting to hear that the chilli was expired: he now knew why half the school had been ill during Mexican week last year: including him. And the school had put it down to lack of exercise.

"Wow Flooty" must be strapped for cash Peter could hear Mikey mutter as he mentioned the frequently absent school principle.

Looking at him with a slight shake of his head, Peter got his and Kylie's attention causing the two of them to look at him, the former giving a slight smile from under his mop of hair. Nodding for them to enter the three of them slowly began to open the two way doors and quiet as possible made their way inside the room.

It was at this point all three of them realised that this was the first time any of them had ever seen the school kitchens: and in truth they were surprised at how clean it was: in spite of the food. It wasn't a place most students never saw, and it was generally a place where good reasons no to go to school generally came. Still as they walked past the metal sideboards and piles of half-finished washing, moving further into the room the three of them were met by the stares of the two figures who had been arguing and stopped dead in their tracks. You swear you could have heard a pin drop.

After a long silence the boy in the white hoody who was holding what looked like a pile of cabbages, two sacks of potatoes and a rucksack of various vegetables managed to find his voice first "ah?"

"That would be an understatement" the girl, who was holding a few cabbages, growled her English accent growing quite sharp as she looked down at the shorter boy, "This is why I told you to use the back entrance" she spat.

Peter was about to speak up when the boy quickly stepped between him and the girl bawling out a reply, "well I told you that if we have to rob to survive, we might as well be polite about it, it's not like anyone stopped us when we came in."

"Stopped us" the girl laughed sarcastically, "They didn't stop us because they thought we were students" as she yelled she began to advance on the boy leaning down to his head height.

Stepping backwards the boy began to yell as well "yes but you know how I hate this… skulking!"

"Erm excuse me" Kylie tried to ask in a polite tone only to be drowned out by the girl.

"Well I am sorry, but we really don't have a choice" the girl now screamed at him pushing him back angrily into the three students causing him to drop some of the vegetables.

Mikey unsure of what to make of the situation, but never one to be left out threw in his few cents and spoke up "Listen miss… err, well listen I am sure if you just step away from the vegetables we can get this all sorted out, no fuss needed."

The girl looked at Mikey with a fierce glare that changed to one of a sly smile before turning her gaze back to the boy "you ready" she asked with a slight smile.

Backing up more the boy was now almost touching Peter and his friends when he turned at them and threw the sacks of potatoes he was carrying straight into the gut of Peter. "Vegetable surprise" he yelled loudly before grabbing the dazed werewolf by the shoulders and pushing him into Mikey.

At the same time the girl took some of the cabbages she had been carrying and threw three in quick succession at Kylie hitting her in the head. The first dazed her, the second caused her to step back and the last forced the poor girl over onto her bottom. In the commotion the two intruders rushed to the door and barged out their footsteps now echoing loudly through the deserted room. A faint "sorry" could be made out from one of the two after they had left. For a second the three teenagers just sat there trying to take in what had just happened, before quickly scurrying to their feet over the piles of greens and brown food stuffs and also barging out of the door, catching the foot of one of the two accomplices as they made their way out of the hall and back into the school.

"Mikey find the janitor a teacher someone: tell them what has happed" Peter barked as the three of them rushed to the door, "Kylie you are with me."

"Yes" the couple said in unison as all three of them burst through the door and out into the school hall.

Mikey turned left and headed in the direction of the janitors closet, Peter and Kylie turned right and went straight after the two food thieves that they could quickly catch turning a corner at the far end of the corridor. Breaking immediately into a sprint the two werewolves quickly made ground, since turning Peter's speed even in human form had quickly surpassed almost any normal person in the school, although he had taken care to only selectively show how fast he could go. The same was now true for Kylie who while did start to lag behind ever so slightly was managing to keep speed with him, which was impressive considering how both of them were never that active before the change: even more so considering Peter's now long gone asthma. Still as they rounded the corner and saw the two figures running Peter was impressed at how far ahead they were, and as they began to rush down the straight corridor he was amazed that they were failing to quickly catch up with them. Still after a few seconds there were now only a few feet between them, and Peter was trying hard to grab the hoody of the girl who was much further back then her friend. However as Peter dived to grab the girl he was astonished to find that where she had been she was now further ahead of the boy in white, almost moving to the other side of the hall.

"Split up" he heard the girl yell and she went left down a junction in the corridor past two students who looked on quite confused at the sight as the boy in white unable to dodge them headed to the nearby locked and to Peter's amazement wall ran over their heads before landing on his two feet so smoothly that he actually gained some momentum.

Peter had to slow up to move past the two students without knocking them flat, heading right after the boy, pointing left to Kylie who seemed to get the message. Nodding she grabbed the walls corner and bolted down the corridor after the girl, a wide grin on her face. Despite the situation she was loving this.

Peter and the boy had meanwhile nearly reached the front door of the school and as a result landed into a massive pile of students who while weren't filling the corridor would slow both their progress. Well that is what Peter expected but the boy in white was somehow keeping the momentum necessary to start to gain ground again on Peter: on a werewolf. At one point he placed his hands on some jocks shoulders and straddled jumped over his head before he could either react, at another point he rolled under the arms of two students who were making out against a locker, before finally grabbing the edge of the head rail on the exits doorframe and swung himself out and over a large group of students who were standing just outside the school.

'Okay that was pretty cool' Peter thought briefly before redoubling his efforts to make it through the crowd who now had stopped to also at the hooded weird who had just managed to bypass a room full of people.

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Kylie meanwhile was having much better success; she had managed to gain the ground necessary to start attempting to grab the girl's hoodie as they raced down the contrastingly deserted corridors. However as she reached out for the third time she to found herself clutching air, and what looked like black smoke: now seeing the girl at the other end of the hallway, who turning right made her way towards what Kylie thought was one of the back exits to the school.

Rushing after her and rounding a corner Kylie was met by a nasty surprise. Being hit in the head by the door of a locker was not what she had been expecting as she flew back onto her bottom for what was the 2nd time in two minutes. Dazed she caught sight of the girl who now standing over her, slowly closed the locker door: looking down at her with a wide grin.

"Don't try it" she said plainly before bolting off again.

Kylie though not one for waiting scrambled to her feet and was about to set off when she slammed into the girl a second time. She hadn't even seen her when the girl just appeared and shoved her straight back onto the floor causing her to skid momentarily and look up at the girl who promptly placed one of her combat boots on her chest.

"Don't even try it" the girl spelled out, her tone carrying a warning of 'or else' as she turned to go again, briefly looking over her shoulder as she now walked away from her grounded pursuer, before disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

Kylie scrambled to her feet again and quickly looked around, even trying to smell after the girl: but found nothing.

"What the hell was that?"

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By this point Peter had managed to clear the crowd and was now standing at in front of the cathedral like schools front entrance, looking through the remaining students for the white hooded figure. This didn't take long as everyone else seemed to be looking at the acrobatic hooded individual who was now heading towards the steps, some vegetables tumbling out of his rucksack.

Not holding anything back Peter dashed towards the culprit and was quickly on him now that they were in the open. Still he was surprised at how long it did take, this guy had freakish stamina and speed, as he had never seen a normal person keep up this kind of pace, and by the time he dived at the person closing his hand around the rucksack they were already at the road.

Tugging on the bag hard Peter felt the jolt as the boy was pulled off his feet and sent straight onto his back by the sudden halt in momentum. Keeping a firm hand on the boy's bag he bent down to pick the runner up, planning to get him to the principle to find out why someone, even if he looked close to the age of Peter, was trying to rob a school's cafeteria. However Peter was caught off guard when the boy rolled out of the pack and dropping low delivered a wide sweeping kick with his right leg sending Peter over and causing the vegetables in the captured bag to go flying. The tables now turned the boy looked at Peter and Peter straight back at him, for a second nothing happened as students began to gather towards the peculiar scene.

The boy had blue eyes, blonde hair, and the faintest hint of what could be called the first signs of stubble on a teenager. He could be called handsome: but his expression was quite tired, although his eyes were alight with an unusual energy, which seemed to transfix Peter in place.

Reaching down the boy with great deliberate action placed his hand inside the bag and pulled out a extremely long and thin black box, bound tightly at one end by two straps. Peter began to try and get up only to find himself pinned by the boys black sneakers, causing the boy to look at him with a fierce look, the serious expression saying it all 'don't even try it.' Stepping off him the boy nodded at Peter, in what could only be interpreted as respect, before pulling his hood down over his eyes.

"What's going on here" yelled the familiar voice of Coach Vincent, the scrawny if physical fit Caucasian teacher barging through the gathering students, Mikey jogging up behind him. "Hey you, stop running he yelled" Peter heard him add, looking back to see him pointing at the fleeing figure of the boy in white.

The boy however ran straight into the road, jumping carefully onto a fire hydrant and then landing on a roof of a passing car, before propelling himself over another moving vehicle and landing on the far side of the road, breaking into another long sprint.

A little taken aback by the highly dangerous act the coach managed to stutter out something reminiscent of astonishment "Err… never mind" before looking down at Peter with a stern glower. "Mr Talbot care to explain?"

Peter however sighed as he picked himself off the floor and stood in front of the large man. "Food thieves sir" he stated quite plainly, he himself unsure of what to make of the situation.

"Food thieves" the coach asked, raising an eyebrow?

"Yeah" Peter said not fully believing it himself as he stared at the partially ripped bag in his hand: "food thieves."

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 **Authors notes**

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Well here is my fanfiction of someone else's universe: I was granted permission and I hope you all enjoy it: the next half of the chapter will be coming in the next week at least, unless I get distracted.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.


	3. Chapter 1: Part 2: What is red and hurts

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men Chapter 1: Part 2: What is red and hurts?**

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The half-moon hung heavy over Everett; the clouds were quite numerous crisscrossing over its silvery light, as the few stars that could be seen hung low causing darkness to lie heavily over the whole city. To normal people it would be a rather scary night to be out, and indeed a unnatural calm has settled over all but its deepest parts, but to someone who was a werewolf it was ideal for moving around unseen.

Peter, Kylie and their 'friend' Derek raced over the city roofs in their werewolf forms, jumping gaps and scaling walls as they traced the sent that Peter had managed to pick up from the bag he had been left holding after the recent food robbery. To them the night was quite pleasant, the cool air whipping them as the slowly reached the outskirts of the city: made all the easier considering that they could see in the dark. Heading from roof to roof was quite relaxing and exhilarating

It was especially exciting for Kylie or Gothina as she was calling herself: as this was technically her first official mission for the pack; after she had received her crash course in basic training. The purple and white werewolf had spent the best part of the week trying to learn all she could, and then spent what little time wasn't taken up by school or Mikey, making her outfit. A dark purple latex one piece offset by a dark black jackets with sleeves that ended just above her elbows, and a small purple choker around her neck. It was a lot more elaborate than the light blue-grey and red wetsuit like outfits that Peter, or rather 'Alpha and Derek/Scar wore. But then again Kylie had been the one to make them to.

Still as they reached the top of another building Peter skidded to a halt madly sniffing the air. They were very near the woods as it was clearly visible to the east and south even on the dark night, with the buildings getting smaller and lower as they neared the end of the city. Although some structures were remaining close to three stories, and were flat topped structures from the late 1930's, early 40's.

Scar however could only shake his head at the absurdity of the situation, they were chasing 'food thieves' and from what he had heard were just two homeless kids who decided to target their schools cafeteria. Still Peter had tried to explain the unusual speed of the boy, while Gothina had tried to tell him about the girl and her disappearing acts, although personally the scarred werewolf believed they were trying to get over a bruised ego. They had just dropped the 'ball' and now he had to help them pick up the pieces.

"You sure it's wise for us to go looking for these people Alpha" Derek asked Peter with his alias, his black and dark grey form looking coldly at the two other werewolves, "I mean they seem like small time compared to the hunters or even muggers?"

"Well one of them used magic Scar" Kylie stated, nodding at the werewolf who was Derek, from where she was surveying the city, referring to the girls disappearing acts.

"And I doubt regular 'criminals' can perfectly time a jump over two moving cars" Alpha added mulling over the word criminal in his head, personally thinking that the boys 'escape' from the crowded corridor was a more impressive feat. But yet could they really be called criminals, it was just food, if rather bad food.

Scar however only grumbled as he turned away, looking at the hundreds of lights that made up Everett, "and what are we supposed to do if we catch them?"

Alpha looked up from where he had been sniffing and fixed Derek with a curious look and was about to answer when his words failed him, realising he wasn't sure. "We'll cross that bridge when we reach it" he said calmly as he headed to one side of the building.

Rubbing the old wound over his eye in frustration Scar merely shook his head as he walked to where Peter was now was standing. "You know its okay to get knocked on your arse" he told them, earning him a puzzled look from Gothina.

"What do you mean" she asked him?

"Well you got beat up by humans… its only naturally you should… you know I am bad at explaining things" Scar began explaining awkwardly before finding his words failing him.

"Wait you think we are doing this because were embarrassed" Kylie asked a little astonished at Scar?

"Err… yeah"

Gothina snorted at this a little at this, although Peter didn't pay it much attention, as with his wolf like eyes he began to match to the smells he was getting to the sights he was spotting. All the while Kylie and Derek's 'argument' intensified.

"Hey I am just saying that you failed to catch some criminals, you don't need to take it personally" Derek said in a louder tone, raising his hands to quote alias Kylie had made for herself.

Gothina however was quick to reply to his accusations raising her finger at him "Hey I am not taking it personally; I am just saying they are more dangerous than some simple food thieves! They were using Magic"

Scar shook his head: "that is reasonable, but seriously you're sure they used magic. Why would a person like that rob a school?"

"Well maybe they don't have any… maybe Hogwarts ran out of food"

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard … your almost as bad as your boyfriend Gothina!"

"Guys" Alpha stated with a glance over his shoulder.

"Hey leave Mikey out of this!"

Turning around and visible separating the two who were now at each other's throats Peter repeated himself "Guys!"

"What" Scar said, quickly returning to his cool demeanour?

Alpha now looking between the two tried to in a calm voice diffuse the situation "I think they are two streets away in an alley, I am heading out… so can you play nice till then?"

Gothina snout had visible curled into a set of bared teeth as she glowered at Derek for the remark against her boyfriend, and had to be shaken by Alpha to return her to the real world.

Not taking her eyes of red jumpsuit wearing black and grey werewolf she muttered an apology "What… oh yeah, sorry."

As the group jumped from building to building again, the roofs getting steadily lower the three shared a rather tense silence before finally landing on a building that lay just above the alley that Peter was fairly certain was where they would find the two individuals. Scar remained fixated on following Alpha, but Gothina would occasionally shoot him dark looks, still upset over his jab at both them, and Mikey. Although once getting there Gothina and Alpha began to wish that they hadn't, as the smell that washed over them, almost caused both the purple werewolf to gag on the sheer overpowering odour.

"Oh my that's bad" Gothina whispered as she stepped back from the lip of the building, "how can you stand it" she demanded from Scar who had casually walked up to the lip and looked down?

"You just need to tune it out" the werewolf stated rather flatly in a hushed voice.

"Try focussing on something else" suggested Peter who was also struggling to avoid the disgusting odour.

Looking down into the alley the three of them saw that it was covered in rubbish, heaps of cardboard lay everywhere, with filthy rags and things that even they couldn't recognise latterly overflowing from the five or so massive bins, and a series of smaller metallic dustbins. The whole alley had obviously had not been seen to in a while, especially at how far off the beaten track it was from the main city, making it remote and ideal place to hide. Although it was taking all three wolves sheer will power to stick around as the whole area stunk of rot and mould.

"How did it take you that long to find this place" Scar growled in a hushed whisper as he began to try and see if anyone was down there.

Alpha however fixed him with a glare and shushed him. He had spotted the two people they were looking for wedged in-between two of the larger dustbins, a single dirty cloth draped between the metal containers in a makeshift shack. Pointing it out the trio quickly swivelled their ears and tried to listen in, and moved along to get a better angle on the two people in the tent.

"I blame you for this" said a voice that was clearly the girls, her hash English tone recognisable most of all to Kylie, "you had to drop the bag."

"Hey what was I supposed to do beat the boy while he was down" came another voice, obviously the boys, who accent and tone was softer and sounding a little hurt at the others jab.

The girls voice however quickly retorted her tone getting hasher "Do you want to eat?"

"Well yes" was the reply, "but we don't have to be criminals Vivien, I mean do we really…"

The girl however cut the boy off with a voice that would have been heard in spite of the wolves' enhanced hearing: "we were already breaking in, and when I said take the bag from him I don't mean break his legs, you could have just winded him!"

"Yeah well… it would be wrong… the whole things wrong" the boy stated solemnly, his huddled form visible tucking his legs into her chest.

The one identified Vivien's tone softened at this and her form could be seen placing her arm around the boy "listen Arthur, we will get out of this, I mean they can't chase us forever, but in the meantime some things are necessary."

Alpha picked up at this, he had wondered why anyone would rob a school, and it was odd enough finding two people this young living on the streets, let alone ones with English accents, but they now seemed to be running from someone.

"I saved you this" the boy said reaching into his hoodie and pulling out something orange, which the trio of werewolves could guess was a carrot: likely from the kitchen, which he handed to the girl.

There was a short pause and after a few seconds of hesitation the girl reached over and took the carrot in hand, before breaking it in two and handing an end back to the boy.

"Share and share alike" she said with a smile, and a small laugh.

The boy nodded as he began to nibble on the carrot, letting out his own low laugh "Just like dad."

"Yeah, dad" the girl added her voice lowering in what sounded like remorse.

Peter, Kylie and Derrek stared in utter bewilderment and confusion, the two teenagers bellow them had just broken into an argument and then patched up in the space of what was less than thirty seconds and were now happily sharing a 'meal' of a stolen carrot. Indeed these weren't the only questions running through the groups head as they realised whoever these kids were they were on the run and from the looks of where they were saying they had not chosen this alley by their own free will. Deep down Peter and Kylie were feeling a tad guilty for not letting them take the food, as the two rather pitifully nibbled away at the small orange vegetable. They looked like they had nothing.

Derek was the first to speak, the obvious question resting on his their minds. "So what do we do now?"

Peter for the first time since crime fighting had to admit he wasn't sure: as usually punching a thug or at times a mutant man-snake thing generally fixed the problem, but these two were a down trodden pair, and while skilled had obviously tried stealing from the school out of reluctant desperation rather than any malicious intention.

Kylie too was mulling her thoughts over, not sure what to think, her expression being one of slight shock and also sadness that they had stopped them.

"Err… you two do remember they still robbed the school" Derek said reading their conflicted expressions, trying to drag the pair out of their own sympathy, and enforcing the indefinable realism back to the situation.

Peter nodded still a little conflicted found some words "Yes" the memory of him being easily knocked onto his back flashing in his head, the boy standing over him and giving him a respectful nod. "I am just not sure… what do we do?"

Unable to answer the three crime fighters pulled back from the edge of the building walking away from the alley bellow them and began to consider the right course of action.

The universe however is a funny thing as time doesn't stop when you go to think, it keeps moving forward and depending on the situation will often provide a solution, but more regularly offer even more questions than answers: this was one of those situations.

A bright light glow could be seen lighting the alley suddenly, as the present hum of a car was unmistakably heard entering the left hand exit and squeezing down the alley as far as it could go and stopping. The faint click of doors opening echoed and two voices quite clearly reverberated through the stone walls of the area the pack had just surveyed.

Stepping back to the edge the trio didn't take long to see the radical change in tone that the dirty grimy alley had taken, the scene now being more reminiscent of a standoff in an old Hollywood gangster movie, then a pitiful scene of two homeless teenagers. The vehicle which had driven in flooded the entire alley with its headlights, its engine of the sleek and red sports car still humming, as it pulled to a halt. Its low sleek aerodynamic form specially designed for speed just showing off the driver's wallet size, its darkened glass making it near impossible to see inside the interior. The doors however were wide open and two men were getting out, both of whom looked similar at a glance but were radically different in major ways.

Together they shared the same strawberry blonde hair, southern Mediterranean complexation and the same facial structure; a strong jaw line, thick brows and slight upturned noses. However the one leaving the driver's seat was shorter, slimmer, clean shaven, wearing brown leather jacket and blue jeans, all the while sporting a grin that stood somewhere between ecstatic excitement and murderous glee, showing off a set of glittering teeth. The one leaving the passenger's seat was much taller, possessed a goatee, and wore a large cotton brown overcoat with folded cuffs, which hung loosely from him, a smart white business suit visible underneath it. Unlike the driver this person's expression was almost blank expressionless only his brow showing any kind of emotion, with a concentrated glare, all the while he was absently straightening the cuffs around his wrists.

"Well, well, well" said the one in leather, in an accent so obviously Italian that it sounded like the pair had been picked straight out or a mobster movie, "look what we found bro, the two lost sheep."

The other man clicked his tongue as he stepped towards the place where the teenagers Vivien and Arthur were hiding. Meanwhile Alpha nodded at Scar silently, before tapping Gothina on the shoulder, knowing what they had to do.

Bolting out Arthur in his white jumper dropped into what was a clear combat stance, his feat spaced out evenly, his shoulders lowered, one hand raised, his left reaching for the black box on his back and his knees bent.

The man in leather just laughed at this, looking over his shoulder at his brother "you seeing this bro" he scoffed while reaching into his jacket and producing a cigarette, "you going to fight us again little man" he smiled taking a few more steps towards Arthur, igniting the cigarette with a lighter he produced with a flick of his wrist.

Arthur however did not budge an inch his hand remaining open in spite adopting a boxer's stance, while he slowly began unfastening the straps of the black box, "hello Ludovico, hello Ernesto" he said in a serious no nonsense tone which still carried the slightest hint of curtsey.

"Just knock him out, Ernesto" the brother in the overcoat said in a serious almost monotone expression, reaching into his jacket and pulling out what as clearly a revolver, placing it on the roof of the car, "I will get the girl."

Appearing suddenly above the smartly dressed Italian the girl popped out in a whiff of black smoke "no you won't" she yelled trying to deliver a kick to his head.

The brother however didn't even flinch, almost fluidly raising his arm, blocking her kick before rolling his wrist up her leg twisted his arm in such away allowing him to grab hold of her ankle and use her momentum to throw her over the car and into the wall of the alley.

"Well done Ludovico, kick her for me will ya" Ernesto called now almost standing over Arthur, leering down at him. And while the Italian he appeared shorter than his brother, he was still much taller than the boy in the white hoodie. "The boss says hello," the clean shaven man smiled his arm darting for Arthur.

Arthur jumped back and was ready to strike back when suddenly a black blur fell from the sky, hitting Ernesto in the back and sending him straight into the cold concrete floor. Ernesto had the briefest second to roll over before he was pinned in position by the clawed palm of a great black and smoke grey werewolf, dressed in what looked like a red latex wetsuit. The same thing happened to the brother identified as Ludovico, another werewolf kicking him in the back of the head and grabbing him swung him against the wall. Landing beside him was now a purple and white female wolf, who standing near six and half feet tall looked down at him with a smile, striking a pose in her purple one piece outfit.

"Have no fear citizen: were here to help" she said happily, her fingers held over her head in a sailor moon pose.

Arthur however didn't seem to hear this, his mouth slightly open as his eyes rolling up and down in his sockets at the wolf-women who had just landed right in front behind him. However the momentary shock seemed to wear off quickly as he stared over at his sister who had finally dragged herself to her feet and yelled in a clear voice.

"Run!"

Vivien didn't waste a second grabbing the lid of a nearby dustbin and throwing it like a frisbee over the head of her brother right into the snout of Gothina who was knocked off her feet in a mix of surprise and unexpected force onto her hyper sensitive nose.

"Hey we are here to help" Alpha called over in a slightly hurt tone on seeing this.

The pair however were not listening as Vivien seemed to disappear in the same black smoke she had used earlier only to appear on the nearby roof, and Arthur broke into a sudden sprint straight at the wall. Here he scaled the building almost going up a story and a half before jumping straight off against it and flew to the other side of the alley grabbing a drain pipe which he scrambled up to the roof next to his sister.

Getting frustrated Scar also added his voice to the calls "Hey… were here to help" he managed to say until he felt a sudden pain in his stomach.

The strawberry blonde Mediterranean man he was holding down had just stabbed him with a switch blade in the gut, and yanking out the blade he proceeded to go for a second round, forcing the blade deep into his abdomen. What was strange was that it hurt, like really hurt, like he was using…

"Silver" Scar muttered as he jumped off the man and onto the bonnet of their car "Alpha this guy has got silver."

Alpha only managed to voice a surprised "What" before he too was caught off guard.

Ludovico letting out a small dry laugh pushed himself off from the wall against Alpha and twisting the arm Alpha was pinning him with until there was a sudden pop and he spun out of the werewolf's arms. Ludovico had just dislocated his arm as he fell to the ground, Alpha still holding onto the useless appendage as the Italian reached over to the car grabbing the pistol ha had left there bringing it up to the black and grey werewolf's eye level.

"Boom head shot" he smiled pulling the trigger.

Alpha with his enhanced speed had barely enough time to recognise what the man had done before jumping back and having to let go of him in the process.

The bullet flew harmlessly into the wall hitting it with a dull thwack, as Ludovico dived back into the still running car and pulling himself with his good arm reached the driver's seat, kicking the vehicle into reverse sending the red sports car hurtling backwards out of the alley and Scar flying off the hood and straight towards Ernesto.

While initially surprised Scar did his best to control his fall, raising a fist and allowing it to collide with the human sending him flying backwards over Gothina who had finally managed to get up. Landing as best he could next to the purple werewolf Scar readied himself for another attack by the human who was quickly scrabbling to his feet: the same sadistic smile over his face, his teeth reflecting off the little light that illuminated the dark alley.

"Woah, you dogs rarely disappoint" he laughed with his Italian accent.

Scar however bared his teeth on hearing the insult "Dogs!"

"Wait" Kylie stated realising something, "you've seen us before"

"Aye, and I will tell me if you answer me this: what's red and hurts?"

The pair had no time to answer before they felt the brother's car slam into their backs, its bumper buckling as it sent them flying at Ernesto's feet.

"Our car, see ya" the man laughed as he jumped over the pair running for the passenger seat.

Alpha who had been forced to clear the alley when Ludovico had driven out returned diving at Ernesto as he reached the door, attempting to pounce on him. Ludovico however with is good arm threw his brother the pistol, which the clean shaven man caught and in one smooth motion brought it up to aim at Alpha firing two clean shots. The first one missed, but the second grazed his shoulder mid jump, causing him to be knocked back by the sudden recoil and have him to fall onto the roof of the car.

"Come on" Ludovico said in his calm voice, while he grabbed his arm and popped it back into place with a sickening crunch "we can head them off."

Climbing in the brothers kicked the vehicle into reverse again throwing Alpha off as the pair backed up rapidly into the road, leaving the three werewolves to pick themselves off the floor. Ernesto quite plainly laughing madly and letting out a wolf howl as they sped off.

"Okay what the hell was that" Scar yelled as he and Gothina managed to groggily stand to their feet: both feeling they had just been hit by… well a car.

Alpha however was currently more concerned with the burning sensation in his left shoulder, a familiar pain of the stinging sensation of silver that all werewolves experienced. Digging a single claw into the wound he managed to pull the bullet out which had thankfully not travelled far into his muscled skin. Standing up he could still hear the half yell, half laugh of the mad Italian as they drove away: a sudden realisation hitting him.

"They're going after those two… what are their names, Vivien and what was the other?"

"Arthur" Gothina added, also realising the situation.

"We need to stop those two" Alpha managed to say through a pained growl, he had forgotten how much silver hurt.

"Alpha you have been shot, you think it's a good…" Scar began but was drowned out by Peters order.

"Scar, you and me need to catch those guys… Gothina… tail those two make sure they are safe."

Gothina however frowned a little taken aback by the order "what your hurt I can help with the car"

Peter however growled as he began to feel the wound to close up, thankful that the silver was quickly out of him before snapping "this isn't the time to argue"

* * *

Ernesto was having a blast, they had finally tracked the kids down after they had lost them back in Portland, and now they had werewolves, and to top it all off they were now racing through practically deserted outskirts of a city in a fancy new car, the thick forests flying by while the pair they were hunting were again giving him plenty of target practice.

"Woo wee!" he yelled as he rolled down the cars window grabbing from the back seat ammo and a double barrelled hunting shotgun, that was unceremoniously piled on top of a small arsenal of other weapons.

Seeing the pair now making their way to one the few buildings left, he began to lean slightly out of the window as his brother slowed the sports car to give him a decent shot. The gun exploded loudly both barrels recoil forcing him back inside the car their pellets flying towards the kids, but the sudden shattering of a series of bricks on a wall showing he had missed, while the kids rushed around the corner.

" _Use something more accurate you idiot"_ his brother said bluntly at him in Italian, his expression remaining blank while he twisted the wheel as the car skidded into a slide as they turned a corner, a random truck honking their horn at them as they narrowly avoided a collision.

" _Shut it Ludovico"_ Ernesto spat his mad grin widening as he popped the shotgun open and loaded in two more shells, _"just drive my car will ya, and don't scratch it anymore"_ he added as an afterthought.

" _Just keep your eyes on the job Ernesto"_

A sudden clunking noise could be heard and the whole car swerved, Ludovico madly twisting the wheel to maintain control, as something very large hit it, two sets of claw marks sinking in through the roof.

The leather wearing brother frowned at the sudden denting of his car, his cheerful expression suddenly failing.

" _Excuse me bro, got a mutt to muzzle"_ the Italian growled as he pulled himself out of the window once again.

* * *

Alpha had to admit this wasn't one of his best ideas as he jumped a street into the woods in pursuit of the runaway car, but the fact the vehicle was not stopping, and anything short of crashing it seemed the only way to stop it he might as well try. Extending his claws he broke into a running jump as he closed in behind the vehicle letting himself fly forward and slam nosily onto the roof of the red sports car. Gripping on for dear life, he tried to keep himself steady as whoever was driving the thing tried to stop it crashing as it swerved left to right in a desperate effort to keep a straight line.

Once the car had levelled Alpha made his way over to the driver's seat, digging the claws onto the carbon fibre side, hoping he could 'convince' the 'mad man' driving the thing to 'stop'.

Meanwhile Ernesto popped out the other side of the car madly gripping onto the roof with one hand while he tried to aim the shotgun he had at the werewolf who had turned away from him.

" _Die mutt"_ he muttered in Italian as he pulled the trigger, the twin blasts going off.

Alpha however caught this insult and rolling off the roof managed to sink his claws into the cars door as for the second time tried to hold on for dear life as the pellets flew over his head. Now glancing down, away from the smiling madman he saw the driver, the smartly dressed brother who he had guessed was the one called Ludovico. The driver however was focusing on the road and only shot him a momentary glance, although did a double take when he spotted him, his expression remaining rather blank.

Alpha however thinking it was worth a shot yelled at him to "stop this car."

However feeling a sudden lurch in speed he could tell the car was speeding up as it made its way along the wooded roads outside the city. Indeed Alpha was about to smash the window open with a raised fist when he was caught off guard as the goatee sporting Italian reached over and grasping the handle kicked the driver's seat door open. The werewolf once again clung on for dear life, as the door bounced and rocked uncomfortably with his weight and the fast movements of the sports car. Still as he attempted to stop himself from falling he managed to feel the car swerve to one side as the brother swung the wheel towards the curve, Alpha seeing the lamppost he was attempting to smash the black and grey werewolf into. Pushing off from the door Alpha managed to leap onto the bonnet sliding over the hood before extending his claws and cutting a large gash in the car's front, his feet dangling dangerously close to the road. He heard the sickening crunch as the door slammed into the metal post, a sizable dent being carved into it as it slammed back into place.

Indeed that was not the only thing he managed to hear, as the clean shaven Italian yelled at him furiously, and forced him to roll off to the side once again when Ernesto now aimed what looked like an assault rifle firing a volley of bullets awkwardly with a one handed grip.

Scar had seen all of this running through the woods, he shook his head disapprovingly as he had seen the so called 'Alpha clamber over the red vehicle like a jungle gym, all the while avoiding the attempts of the mad driver and his brother to kill and throw him off. And while the pair were failing to kill Alpha, the werewolf's attempt at stopping them was failing just as much. Then again 'if you wanted to do something you do it yourself', and getting ahead of the vehicle he repeated Peter's move and made a long mad jump onto the now empty roof.

Ernesto seeing the great mass of fur and teeth come flying at the vehicle dived back inside as the second wolf hit the car sending it into another swerve as the driver tried to pull off another power slide at a junction. Thankfully Ludovico managed to salvage the situation and seeing a clean street which the targets were running towards put his peddle to the metal and sent the whole vehicle rocketing forward, right back towards Everett.

Scar however not wanting this to get out of hand before they got any deeper into the city extended his claws and swinging his arm down he felt the razor sharp talons rip into the carbon fibre roof of the car. The material gave way leaving a large gash, which grabbing firmly in two hands he began to pull back against, letting it buckle and bend as Scar literately peeled back the roof above the driver's cabin.

Ludovico was certainly not expecting this as he glanced up and through the hole in the roof, seeing Scars massive clawed paws reaching inside to grab the driver. Snapping to attention the smartly dressed man drew the pocket revolver he had used earlier and pointing straight at the wolf.

Scar pulled back letting two silver tipped projectiles fly past him out of the hole he had made. At the same time Alpha was struggling to keep a grip as whenever he tried to climb back up, as the other crazy Italian kept firing another volley after volley at him causing him to have to constantly keep clawing his way around the bonnet, slowly making his way around to the driver's side.

It was at this point Ludovico hit the emergency break.

The whole vehicle suddenly lurched and skidded, sliding into a spin sending sparks flying as a tire exploded form the friction. The two brothers were thrown around, Ernesto, neglecting a seatbelt; head collided with the airbag, while Ludovico spun the wheel in some vain attempt to both save the car and throw of the hitchhikers. Alpha and Scar at the same time were sent flying from the car, the werewolf in red heading off to the side and into a bush, while the former felt his claws screech as he slid down the bonnet and finally tear through the rest of the hood, causing him to be thrown painfully onto the side walk.

Shaking his head Peter groggily looked up and managed to see the car they had been trying to stop start to move, its engine humming as it slowly dragged itself out from a the lamppost it had crashed into and continued down the road at a steady speed, the tattered mess of a tire rolling out from under it. Looking up Alpha could see the backs of the two teenagers, Arthur and Vivien heading back towards town, the silhouette of Vivien also seen following the pair.

Staggering to his feet, Alpha became immediately aware of the intense pain in his left arm which he realised he had fallen on. It was broken and the pain only grew worse as he got to his feet, however it wasn't the same as usual pain, and he could plainly feel the snapped appendage pulling itself back together and mending under his flesh. And then the pain was gone, he himself absently flexing his left hand.

"Urrr"

Alpha was immediately brought back to reality by the groaning soon of Derek who was finally getting to his feet after being thrown straight into the woods; unlike himself the born werewolf didn't seem to have suffered any major damage.

"You okay" Peter asked his friend as he looked at the fading lights of the car they had just chased.

Derek however could only growl in frustration as he pulled himself to his feet "Alpha, you're an idiot!"

* * *

Running on all fours Gothina was quite easily keeping pace with the two teenagers; they were quite clever ducking into the woods, not appearing to have any difficultly running through the bushes as they tried to make their way out of the city. But at the same time while the pair could outrun the pack over the roofs or in a school, the trees and forests where Gothina's territory. However every time Arthur and Vivien tried to make a break for the wilderness the red car would pull out, a large blast of a shotgun echoing in the distance followed by malicious laughter, which would cause them to turn straight back towards the city.

Gothina as ordered kept her distance, tailing the pair, as she jumped from tree to ground in rapid succession, waiting carefully for a chance to leap in and save them.

However Alpha's decision to jump onto the car and throw attackers off sent her plan hurtling into the ground, as her ideas of saving the day quickly evaporated. Still returning her attention to her two charges Arthur and Vivien had seemingly given up trying to flee and were now trying to make their way back into the city beginning to reach the back of an old restaurant.

"Where did they go" Arthur asked stopping to look back towards the woods road.

"Who cares" his sister stated as she nears the building panting for breath.

"You okay Vivien, you think we're safe?"

Breathing deeply, the black hair girl calmly looked over to her brother Vivien spoke in a controlled tone "Arthur we are being chased by freaking werewolves again" she said, before exploding into a loud outrageous yell "we are never safe!"

'Ouch that was rather personal' thought Gothina as she leapt into a tree, resting low on its branch surveying the two, 'and they have been chased by werewolves?'

Vivien now walking past Arthur, she bent over and rested her hands on a nearby dustbin appearing to be catching her breath. Grabbing the lid though the girl disappeared in a puff of black smoke, causing both her brother and Gothina to jump in surprise. Indeed for a second Gothina was unable to even smell where the girl had gone before realising from the sudden yelling noise above her head where Vivien had gone.

Looking straight up the purple werewolf caught a third helping of metal to the face, that day, as a another dustbin lid slammed into her face sending her backwards into a summersault as the force to her snout sent her sense reeling again.

Dazed Gothina was getting really tired of this teleporting girl as she caught the faint trails of black smoke hovering above her head. Getting to her feet she saw both brother and sister now heading away from the restaurant and were once again running along the gap between the wood and the city's outskirts.

In the distance her wolf ears picked up the flecks of what sounded like a massive crash. Not sure if it was Alpha and Scar's handiwork she continued on her task, keeping an eye on the pair. As the siblings reached a road leading into the city from the woods she heard the familiar roar of that sports car, with Scar and Alpha nowhere to be seen.

At the same time as Gothina landed on a roof above the pair, Vivien again grabbed a dustbin lid and threw it at the wolf girl, although this time the purple haired superhero caught it her paw.

'No more of that' she though before calling out "Hey I just want to help."

It was at this point the red car came hurtling out of the darkness. Skidding to haut, sparks flying from a rear wheel, one of the brothers leaned out of the window raising an assault rifle at them, yelling incoherently in Italian, his teeth seemingly reflecting the light from a nearby street lamp.

Instinctively Kylie threw her captured dustbin lid at the man, her super human strength turning the metal cap from improvised weapon into a deadly rocket.

Ernesto managed to catch only a glance as he was caught in the arm, his gun slipping from his grasp and he himself letting out a roar of pain, while the car drove off into the city.

The two siblings however had used the distraction to bolt back down an alley away from both Kylie and the two Italians, the boy using a dustbin to reach and scale another drain pipe to the roof, the girl just simply blinking in and out of existence again, appearing at her brother's side.

However they suddenly looked at each other and the two split off, not exchanging words as the boy jumped back down into the street, running down its pathways past three very confused individuals, while the girl continued to jump from roof to roof.

Gothina took this moment to clamber to her own vantage point above the street and paused as she stared after both of the siblings who were now running in opposite directions.

"Oh dear" she muttered.

The sudden scratching, thudding noises behind her, combined with the distinct smell of wet dogs and pine trees told her though that Peter and Derek had just arrived and turning around was surprised the pair were in.

There fur was matted, standing on end and covered with twigs and leaves, like the two had been thrown into a compost bin, twice! Scar was looking particularly sour, as he stormed towards her.

"Where are those two" he demanded.

Gothina pointed left at the back of the girl who in the 30 seconds of contemplation was already two to three streets away over as she hopped from roof to roof. The purple werewolf then pointed right as she picked out the back of the boy wearing white as he clambered up a drainpipe to a roof of cinema.

"They split up" she said bluntly.

"How could you let them do that" Scar roared?

Not happy at the remark, she once again raised her finger "hey I don't see those two mad drivers in handcuffs; I had to use a dust bin lid to stop them turning those two into paste a minute ago."

"Will you two stop it" Alpha shouted, physically getting between them and forcing them apart, "we need to help them" he said trying to reason to both the wolves, "did you see were the car went" he now asked looking at the female wolf?

A series of gunshots in the direction of where the boy had run answered that question for them.

Scar let out a long sigh as he began to break into a run, heading in the direction of the loud bangs, Alpha looking back at Gothina.

"Keep tailing the girl" he stated patting her on the shoulder, "make sure she is safe. We need to make sure the boys alright."

Gothina was about to object, but not because she didn't want to help the pair, but rather because of what she had heard.

"Pe… Alpha she called"

"Don't worry Gothina we can handle this" Alpha called back as she jumped from the rooftop to the next.

'But they have seen us before" she called "they have seen werewolves before!'

* * *

 **Authors notes**

* * *

While I love the car scene: I am a little unhappy with the chapter: I have rewritten it twice now but something just seems out of place? Could be to long winded?

Thanks for reading.


	4. Chapter 1: Part 3: The Amell's

**Full Moon High: Chapter 1: Pt. 3: The two Amell's**

* * *

The outskirts of Everett were eerily quiet in the night, as the places were the forest and city met merged into one. The only noise that dared disturb the silence was the sudden cracking of gunshots and the revving of a powerful engine rocketing along its deserted streets.

The noise however made it easy for Alpha and Scar to follow the rampaging car, with them slowly beginning to close the distance by cutting across the cities roof tops and jumping whole streets to get nearer the two Italian gunmen. Peter himself noted how effortlessly they were catching up; with the more he spent time in the city the easier it seemed to move around unseen. However something nagged in the back of his head as he heard another gunshot: that he could not see or smell the boy anymore, like he had just disappeared.

After three minutes of the chase the gunshots seemingly died down, and the eerie silence returned. Everything near them seemed dead and deserted: the wood lying a block away from them and the cluttered warehouses they were now jumping across stretching back towards the city and its distant garbled sounds. Every building they seemed to leap to just got further and further apart.

Alpha skidded to a halt as they reached the top of another storage yard, the wolf glancing about for any sign of the car or even the boy, as he began to sniff the air for a trace of their location.

Scar himself quickly landed beside the light grey werewolf panting as he crouched down rubbing his stomach. He wasn't out of breath, but his disgruntled snarl suggested that he wasn't having the most pleasant of evenings, which was made clear as he nursed the small stab wounds in his gut.

Alpha glanced over his shoulder with a hint of concern "you alright," he asked from where he was standing on all fours sniffing the air?

Scar gave a small growl as he rubbed his well-toned stomach, the small wounds visibly, if slowly, healing. "I'll live" he muttered with distaste as he looked up at the half moon peeking through the clouds. "Dam silver."

Alpha however was still more concerned with the three people they were tracking; it was almost as if they had just dropped off the face of the earth.

But then something familiar wander across his snout, a stench like rotting garbage and rusted metal, mixed in with the peculiar scent of the bag that he had managed to salvage from earlier. Just like the smell he had used to find the boy in the white hoodie.

Looking up he could see three buildings away on the roof of a large steel warehouse the boy in white, Arthur, was jumping across a gap between two roofs before coming to a stop for some reason.

Smiling to himself, he called out in a silent triumph. "Found him," Peter stated, tapping Derek on the shoulder and setting off, earning a deep growl from the almost jet black werewolf.

It only took another minute to reach the boy who now seemed to be bent double, having probably stopped to finally catch his breath against an air conditioning unit, all the while rubbing his right leg.

However as the pair reached the building that Arthur had just jumped from, Derek and Peter could tell he wasn't quite panting, more wincing as he reach down to his left leg to pull something out of it. The wolves caught a brief reflective flash in the moonlight as whatever he pulled out of his legs dazzled before he casually threw it aside. They could see the flecks of red covering the tatted lower half of his black joggers.

Peter let out a mental gulp, he had never been shot as a human, and for werewolf's normal bullets hit like bee stings, but no matter how capable a free runner this person was, that had to have hurt.

"Dam how long has he been running on that?" Alpha asked, almost wincing himself as he saw the boy pull out another silvery shard of metal.

Derek did not immediately answer listening closely to the area around: trying to pick up the distinctive roar of the sports car they had tangled with earlier. "Don't know," he admitted not finding any sound of the distinctive engine, "but it has to have been in the last few minutes, had to have taken that long for him to lose the car."

Alpha grimaced "guess now is as good as time as any to check if he is safe," he suggested in a serious tone?

"Are you sure that's wise?" Derek added as he stood up from his crouched position "he didn't seem too keen on chatting when we first stepped into help him."

Alpha placed a hand on the jet black wolfs shoulders and looked at him. "It's the right thing to do, plus as Kylie said he's seen werewolves before."

"I don't think that's what she was getting at."

Shaking his head Peter broke into a running jump. He easily cleared the street and managed a skidding landing on the warehouses metallic roof, scar soon joining him in a similar fashion. The friction between his claws and the roof was just enough to make a faintest scratching noise, like a nail on chalk board. However that was all it took for the human to glance over his shoulder and straight at them.

The hooded figure stared right at them for one full second before suddenly bolting. The sudden change in his speed from sitting perfectly still too into what looked like a full on Olympic sprint was so sudden that it took the werewolves a moment themselves to recognise the change.

"Hey wait," called Alpha reaching out in desperation!

Growling Scar charged. "What did I tell you," he roared, fed up of this ridiculous chase. Easily diving after the hooded boy, before jumping right over him and landing in front of the fleeing figure. Arthur however somehow slid out from under the seven foot wolf man's arms as Scar swung to grab him, before instantly rolling to his feet and charging straight for the edge of the building and in direction of the scrap yard.

Alpha landed next to the confused Derek and shot him a disapproving glare as he charged off after the boy in the white hoodie.

"You just needed to do that" he stated as he saw Arthur jump off the edge of the building arms outstretch.

Scar reply was short and sweet as he too raced for the buildings edge "what would you have done?"

Reaching the buildings edge the wolves managed to see Arthur's jump and immediately stopped in shock as what they saw. Somehow the boy, arms flying like two windmills, had managed to clear almost half the street in a single jump and now was reaching out to grab the arm of a warehouse crane that lay packed in the middle of the road. And he did. His fingers closed around the yellow metallic guarder, which he dangled from a story off the ground.

'Pretty impressive for a human' Scar thought as he saw the boy dangle off the crane.

But as Arthur swung back on the item, his legs stretching out for another jump there was a creek and the cranes arms suddenly lurched downwards under his weight causing the hooded free runner to lose control of his grip, sending Arthur crashing to the ground.

Peter closed his eyes mentally feeling the pain from the loud bone chilling snap. 'Yep' he thought you didn't need super hearing to tell that his leg was now broken.

Jumping down into the street the two werewolves looked up and down make sure the coast was clear, before slowly making their way towards Arthur who apart from a sudden grunt had barely made any noise apart from the sound of his bone snapping.

The boy had in fact dragged himself along the road to the sidewalk where we was trying to then pull himself over a fence that separated the warehouses from the scrap yard. With just his arms he had already made it half way up when the two wolves stepped up behind him. Scar had his arms crossed while Alpha began to move closer in, a little disturbed by how his two legs dangled like dead eights bellow him, one bent at an unsettling angle.

"Hey are you alright," Alpha asked calmly while keeping his distance?

The boy though didn't answer, merely reaching up and grabbing the bar at the top of the wire fence to try and pull himself further up.

"Hey don't ignore us," Scar growled now practically charging at the boy as he crawled up to the highest point he could before rolling over the lip of the fence and landing with a sickening thud on the other side.

Scar at this let out a sigh as he easily reached up to the top of the fence and leaped over it with a single swing of his arms.

"Will you…" he yelled but stopped mid-sentence as the hooded boy he now loomed over began to roll on his side and slipped underneath a car.

Letting out a howl of frustration Scar placed his head to the ground and peered under the wrecked motor vehicle only to see the boy now army crawling on the other side.

Peter laughed as he landed beside Derek, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Come on" he stated calmly, "we need to help him, even if he is being a pain"

Scar only snorted as the pair rounded the corner of a pile of cars as they entered deeper into the scrap yard.

* * *

Crawling under an old water storage tank Kylie looked out across the street to the buildings on the far side. Vivien had finally begun to slow down after what was likely six to seven minutes of running across rooftops. Still it had been far from boring for the purple and white werewolf who was now watching the black hooded girl collapse into a small pile on the flat roofed, four story building, lying on her back as she breathed rapidly in and out.

Smiling to herself Kylie could hear the girls heart pumping as her chest rose with each of her laboured pants and the werewolf's grin couldn't help but get bigger 'this was all awesome' she thought, 'being a werewolf was so cool.'

Climbing out from under the water tank and breaking into a running jump Kylie almost cleared the street in a single leap, although had to use her claws to scale the wall of the building she nearly crashed into. After getting to the top Kylie made sure to move in behind a wall that connected onto a door for gaining access to the roof. Glancing around the corner she finally got a good look at the person she had been chasing for almost up to an hour now.

Vivien had finally managed to pull herself back to her feet her hood falling back and her long black hair cascading down past her incredible tall frame. Kylie's eyes almost went wide on seeing this, as the black locks almost reached the back of her knees they were so long, although it's matted and untidy appearance showed that the tall girl had obviously not been keeping care of herself. However her long, currently flushed face, face was a little gaunt and thin likely from lack of food: although it still held a certain attractiveness to it, although a more severe and mature one then the youthful beauty that could be found on the schools cheerleading squad. Still apart from that it was very hard to get a good understanding at what she really looked like under her very baggy trousers and jumper.

Kylie could only subconsciously think of her own human form, a pang of jealousy over the girl's good looks hitting her as she watched Vivien slowly make her way towards the buildings fire escape. Cautiously peering out every now and then whenever her hearing told the werewolf that the girl had her back turned Kylie would glance out as the girl descended the ladders one by one.

Suddenly though another thought crossed her mind as she heard the creaking of the ladder as Vivien descended her first story. 'How old is that fire escape?' Kylie slowly made her way towards the edge of the building, peering over as she smelt what she guessed was rust and flaking decade old industrial paint. Indeed as she glanced out again, Kylie could make out the small patches of brown that covered the metallic frame on the side of the building. And by the way Vivien was taking her time with methodical slow pace she likely agreed this wasn't too safe, but her tired exhausted expression highlighted it was the most practical.

And then it happened: the ladder snapped, its rusted edges giving way and throwing Vivien over the edge of the railing

In a split second Kylie dived, ready to catch the girl as she hurtled towards the ground, her hands outstretched and her eyes closed.

Opening those eyes a second later Vivien let out a horse chuckle which quickly turned into an ecstatic laugh. She was floating; her whole body suspended about three feet off the ground her long black hair trailing above her into individual strands as an unseen energy cradled her body.

Still laughing as she looked along the ground bellow her she managed to breath out a tied phrase. "I-I d-did it," she smiled as her hands began to shake violently, a vein on her forehead pulsing.

"Yeah quite impressive" came an awkward voice from above her.

Tilting her gaze up Vivien felt her blood freeze as above her, suspended like she, was a purple and white werewolf, the beasts long clawed hands stretched out towards her, looking as if it was caught in mid jump by her spell.

Vivien yelled and whatever power had stopped both individuals in the air suddenly vanished as both hit the floor.

Kylie rolled with the fall her senses allowing her to easily adjust herself, while the black haired girl slammed into the ground with a dull thud, small items spilling out of her hoodies pockets.

"You okay" Kylie asked her snout twisting into a smile as she rose to her full height.

Vivien however just looked the werewolf practically mortified, before quickly grabbing the items covering the floor and scurrying back.

Kylie knew what was coming next, and called after Vivien raising a hand, "Hey wait," she said as Vivien stuffed a decorative purple mask into her pocket, black smoke appearing around her.

However this time as the smoke intensified the girl did not disappear, although her expression turned rather blue as she appeared to be holding her breath. Indeed she started to go white before she until she finally relented and let out a huge gasp and began furiously panting again.

"Look… erm, as hard as it to believe I am not going to hurt you" Kylie stated awkwardly taking a step towards the girl who had finally backer herself into a corner between some dustbins. "I mean wolf's promise," she added raising her paw her smile growing bigger.

Managing to clamber to her feet as she held onto the trash cans behind her, Vivien glared back at the wolf through her tangled matted hair, not believing what she was seeing. 'Does she seriously think I am that stupid' she thought as her hands closed around the handle on a dustbin lid.

"Could you please not do that," the werewolf asked taking a step back, seeing where the girls hand was reaching for, "I promise you… I won't hurt you."

Vivien however snorted, picking up the lid and slowly raising it above her head, spitting out some filth that had gotten into her mouth somehow. "You expect me to believe that" she growled defiantly, her British accent giving her hash tone an edge of severity, almost daring the werewolf to respond.

"O-okay, okay I am backing up see" Kylie stated in an apologetic fashion a little taken aback by the girls aggressiveness. "Wow way to react." In all truth Kylie had expected her to be scared, yet this girl now backed into a corner looked like she was going to fight. "Are you alright… I mean relatively speaking?"

Vivien once again snorted, which quickly turned into a cackle which only finished when she blew the tangled hair out of her eyes and stood up to her full height. "That depends on how many of you there are," she added distastefully, the dustbin still held up high.

"Just the one," Gothina stated cheerfully while pointing at herself, earning her a snort from the black haired girl.

Kylie took another step back and raised her arms defensively hooping to dissuade her from throwing another dustbin lid at her. "Look you have had a long evening, and well I can understand the stress you've been through…"

"No you can't"

Kylie blinked at the comment still surprised at the girls aggressive tone part of her quickly getting fed up with her attitude. "Okay," she said reservedly, "look okay, my name's Gothina what's yours, Vivien right?"

"Don't try and get chummy with me" Vivien spat now trying to edge her way out of the corner and towards the alley's exit.

Kylie finally snapped "what is your problem I am here to help" she shouted almost lunging at her "I didn't follow you for half the evening to hurt you… I just jumped in to save you right now!"

"You did what?"

"When you fell I jumped into save you," Gothinna began to explain trying to contain her anger, but none the less feeling it boil over in her voice. "If your spell, if that is magic hadn't happened I would have caught you, so please can you please have less of an the attitude!" she practically yelled out, her teeth baring.

'God' the werewolf thought, 'this girls got a bigger trust issues then Sarah has.'

There was an awkward silence, the sound of the city being the only noises either of the two girls could hear, as they just stood there in an awkward stare off.

"It is magic" Vivien stated seriously lowering the dustbin lid but keeping a firm grip on the handle, "and you seriously expect me to trust you?"

"Do you seriously think that dustbin lid will do anything but slow me down?" Kylie spat back still a little upset, although was steadily calming down.

Vivien laughed again, although this time it was dry and short. "It's worked the last three times, hasn't it? Plus you'd be surprised at what can stop a werewolf."

"Wait you only threw those lids at me twice this evening" Kylie stated taken slightly aback.

Vivien mused at this and nodded, "true," she stated before her thin perfect lips twisted into a smile, her tone suddenly carrying a hint of venom to it "but I did knock you down back at the school?"

Kylie felt her sweat drop. 'How did she?'

* * *

The rusting hulks of dilapidated cars lay strewn around, piled haphazardly on top of one another in an effort to cram as much of the old or towed vehicles into a single space. Indeed there were few gaps large enough to squeeze through that it was difficult for Alpha and Scar in their enhanced sizes to make it quickly through and still follow the tiny blood trail their target was leaving. In truth the colossal hulking scrap pile was unnerving to Alpha, its eerie silence was almost unnatural. Indeed he could still hear the faint garble of the night city behind him and the chirping of insects from the wood just beyond the stacks of disused 1990's cars, there was practically no sound in the scrap yard save the creaking of rusting metal upon metal.

Scar walked over to a nearby pile of flecked and crumbling vans and bent down. "He went this way," he growled in a hushed tone as the black furred werewolf made his way around the pile.

Crack.

Alpha and Derek froze; some noise just beyond the vans had just broken the dead silence. It wasn't a crack like a gunshot, in fact it would have almost barely noticeable to a human, but for a werewolf in the dead of night such a noise stood out as plainly as black paint did against a white background. Cautiously keeping their backs to the wrecks they squeezed through the narrow gap and peered around the corner.

Their small exit area opened up into what could be called a crushing zone. A tall magnet crane swung silently in the evening breeze, piles of crushed cubes laid stack in neat columns near an old gate a few dozen meters away from them.

Crack.

The noise came again, from behind the piles of crushed metallic cubes, and the pair slowly made their way towards them, Scar dropping onto his all fours hugging the floor as they made their way towards the source of the noise.

"It's defiantly him" stated Scar sniffing the air, the traces of garbage emanating from behind the recycled cubes.

Alpha nodded his ears swivelling to the direction of the smell, the faintest sound of a whimper being heard. "Let me go first," the werewolf stated taking the lead, and ignoring his friend's warnings.

"I am not running after him again!"

Scampering up and over the cubes and quietly as he could, the wolf soon reached the far side and looking straight down saw Arthur. The boy was sitting pressed up against the crushed cars, with him curiously having taken one of his arms out of his sleeve and stuffed said sleeve into his mouth. At the same time he was holding onto his twisted leg and seemed to be rubbing it.

Indeed it was hard not to wince at the unnatural angle the lower half of his lower limb was jutting out at. 'That has got to hurt' Peter thought as he extended his claws and began to quietly climb down.

Crack

The faint noise came again, and this time he felt the pit fall out of his stomach as saw what was making it. Arthur had just grabbed his own broken limb and yanked it back into place. Both werewolves were audible hearing the boy's bones snapping, as Arthur twisted his ligaments back into the correct place, the soft moaning actually being his muffled screams from the white sleeve in his mouth.

Crack.

Arthur pulled again and the foot finally sat in what looked like the right direction, before slumping back against the cubes with a muffled sigh of relief.

Alpha at this point maneuvered himself in front of the hooded boy, as the young man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As Arthur slowly awakened from his brief rest he saw the wolf now standing over him and instantly felt his sweat drop before scrambling haphazardly to his feet and attempting to run for it.

Alpha shook his head as he looked at the back of the boy who pulling himself up with the stacked cubes tried to make an escape on his broken leg. 'What is he thinkin… wait!'

As Alpha had taken his time to contemplate how impossible for the boy with a broken leg to run, Arthur had broken into a sprint and was now, once again, fleeing.

Until Scar dropped out of the sky and pinned him to the ground.

"Okay" roared the red spandex werewolf, "I am tired of chasing you, will you stay put for five god dam minutes!" His right paw now firmly placed around Arthur's neck who was looking up into his yellow eyes, letting out a half-hearted groan.

"Oh dear."

"Scar please get off him" Alpha ordered sternly walking up and looking down at the blonde boy. "We are not going to hurt you."

The boy shrugged rather casually with the clawed hand around his neck, his calm expression contrasting the difficult position he was in. "Well that makes a change, if you pardon my bluntness."

Alpha blinked. 'Well this is certainly not the reaction I was expecting,' he thought as he watched Scar climb off the boy, who's hood finally fell down giving them both an excellent look at his face.

Long curly golden blonde hair fell about his face, with fresh blue eyes staring up at the two werewolves rather calmly with a polite but small smile creeping across his strong jaw covered with what was essentially a very light beard. True his light skin tone was blemished with muck, filth and the bags under his eyes made his otherwise cheerful expression look slightly weary. To some girls he could have been called ruggedly handsome, but his short height made his rather strong facial features appear a little unusual.

As Arthur finally got to his feet he popped a seemingly random question. "So I am guessing you are not here then because of my father?"

Alpha blinked again, his already confused expression becoming even more perplexed. "Err… no."

The boy smile continued as he now looked between the two werewolves. "So I am speculating from that you two don't know who I am," he asked, his British accent making him sound almost comically polite like a Butler from a cartoon show.

"Well you were see… erm what are you doing" Alpha asked as Arthur suddenly narrowed his eyes and leaned forward, as if to inspect the two werewolves in greater detail, looking them up and down, before lingering on both their eyes .

"Hmm" he said flatly as he straightened up into a strong upright posture his hands resting behind his back, his joyful polite smile returning.

Scar growled, "look your just some talented street punk who robbed a school, were here to make sure you don't do it again, got it!" The werewolf demanded, now towering over Arthur.

The boy though simply looked straight up into the Lycans glowing yellow eyes before turning his gaze to the floor, although not in fright but in shame, his tone making that all the more evident.

"Yes," he said with a note of sadness. "I am not proud of it, but we had no food and my sist… I was not going to eat leftover junk food from a bin again… my apologies to any I inconvenienced."

Now having to get between Arthur and Derek, Peter pried them apart and looked at both of them. "Scar calm down you don't need to throw the book at him, now we overheard your name is Arthur," the werewolf asked turning to the boy?

"Yes."

"Okay can you please explain who those two men were?"

"Ludovico and Ernesto?" he said now looking between them, "that is a rather complicated story."

"To hell with those two," Scar shouted. "How the hell are you walking!"

"That is also very complicated," he repeated, his polite tone not wavering as he said the same thing again.

"Is everything going to be complicated" Alpha asked a smile flashing across his face.

Scar glowered at his fellow Werewolf with his snout twisting into a snarl. "Don't get friendly with him Alpha."

Arthur however simply grinned pointing at each of the two respectively. "Ah so you're Alpha and your Scar… Unusual names, are they code words?"

"That's none of your business" Scar spat.

"Oh come now I trust you" Arthur then said in his polite tone as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

"What!?"

"I trust you" he said with a grin, before briefly looking past the two of them, "but you have also gotten involved in something you shouldn't have, and for that you have my sincerest apologies."

Scar roared now lunging at the boy, "Okay enough with the riddles I want some answers!"

"Yes but…" Arthur began before being cut off by the furious werewolf.

"Answers now!"

"Step away from the midget dogs!"

The two werewolves stopped in mid stride, Scar half way onto grabbing the small human and Alpha half way in-between grabbing Scar to pull him off. Turning around they saw standing around ten meters away from them a tall man in a smart brown overcoat and neatly pressed white suit.

"Ah hello Ludovico… I won't say it's a pleasure, sadly," the overly polite Arthur said behind the two werewolves.

* * *

Kylie stopped, her ears drooping, the same thought running through her head, 'how did she know that was me?' "I have no idea what you're talking about" the werewolf blurted out.

Vivien smile flashed her perfect white teeth as she now took a step towards the werewolf "Really?"

"Well... I mean… okay let's just go with that for now" blurted out Kylie as she took a few steps away from the girl who was suddenly confidently walking towards the werewolf who was at least half a foot taller than her. "But if you're willing to share that bit of information can you please share something else."

The girls expression shifted to one of mild interest as she stopped striding towards Kyli , the dustbin lid hanging loosely by her side. "Ask away" she permitted, her tone suddenly having a seductive playful quality to it.

'Okay… that's weird' an unnerved Kylie thought upon hearing her voice before remembering her question. "Either way, can you please tell me what is up with those to two idiots back in the alley?"

"I have been in a lot of alley's this evening" Vivien mused, her tone carrying a playful quality, but her expression remaining deadly serious, "may need more prompting."

'Okay this is weird' Kylie thought as this girl had gone from frightened and desperate to suddenly confident and now oddly sexual all upon dropping the news that she had figured out Kylie and Gothina were the same person. Although Kylie had yet to honestly admit it.

"Could you just answer the question"

Vivien shrugged and did not answer the girl instead asking her own question "do you know who I am?"

"What no" Kylie stated a little taken aback by the question before adding in a haphazard way "well apart from one of the thieves who broke into Shepard high school where my good friend goes to."

"Really" Vivien asked tilting her head back and her eyes narrowing, as she began to look Gothina up and down, as if to inspect every detail of her body.

Kylie gulped. 'Why do I get the feeling she knows I am lying'

"Oh dam this" Vivien growled rubbing her forehead, before muttering to herself. "Arthur is better at this then me. Oh nice outfit by the way."

Breaking into a wide smile the wolf girl couldn't help but blush a little. "Aw thanks," before realising the difference in the girls earlier outburst. "Are you alright?"

"Yes" spat Vivien her fingers flexing around the dustbin lid, "do you have any more questions?"

"Erm… well, just out of curiosity you don't seem that surprised to see a werewolf?"

At this the black haired girl gave a small huff. "Well I have been chased by your kind enough times to get used to you."

"Wait so this isn't the first time a werewolf has tracked you?"

"Nope," came the blunt reply as the girl flicked some of her overly long hair back. "Although you're the first who ever tried to talk to me, must admit it makes a change of pace," she added sounding slightly bored.

"But why would they want to hunt you?" asked the werewolf finding the whole story not adding up, "Those two earlier didn't smell like werewolves."

Vivien shrugged at this as she lowered the dustbin lid. "Your right in that. The answer though lies series of long boring backstory's over who I am, and who I worked with…" she began to explain, her tone growing darker as she talked. "Suffice to say it boils down to one simple answer."

"Which is" Kylie asked feeling a bit out of her comfort zone.

"To bite me! Duh."

* * *

"Okay I will ask once more, hand over the child and I will let you go this once doggie" Ludovico stated as he raised his rifle and braced it against his shoulder.

Alpha and Scar however when still a little taken aback by the humans sudden appearance, neither of them had heard or even smelt the Italian approaching.

"Sorry but you seem a bit overconfident, it's two against one," Alpha said smugly as Scar dropped into a coiled crouch, and Arthur piped up behind him.

"Ahem, three."

"Okay three… so turn around now and we can all leave here without any more trouble."

The man in the white suit however merely pulled the rifle higher as he stared down its sights, casually calling out to someone in the darkness. "Brother."

As if on que the two wolves heard a scrapping noise on the pile of crushed cubes above them. Staring back down at them his wide glittering teeth grinning down at them was a familiar face, the same sadistic smile he had shown earlier flashing in the moonlight.

"Say hello to my little friend" Ernesto chuckled as he raised his own weapon towards the trio, causing even Scar to gulp a little as he spotted the unmistakable grenade launcher.

"No offense but I think your friends a little bit overblown for the situation," Peter tried to say confidently, although came across a little taken aback by the excessive ordinance.

Ernesto licked his lips upon hearing the boy. "Oh come now, we just like keeping things… how do you American's say… 'fair!'"

"Enough, I will give you twelve seconds to comply" Ludovico stated bluntly cutting off his brother as he aimed down the M4's barrel.

"Look just leave, and no one gets hurt." Alpha began, still a little off guard as he looked around for a plan.

"Twelve," began the Italian.

"Alpha I suggest you use your scream at the one up there" Scar whispered just enough for Alpha and Arthur to hear.

"Eleven, ten."

Alpha nodded crouching himself "Think you can handle him" he asked nodding at Ludovico?

"Nine, Eight"

"Erm don't I get a say in this" Arthur asked rather simple taking a step back.

Scar merely snorted at this. "Just run, you're good at it."

"Seven, Six."

"No it's just I think we should all run because… well?"

"Fivefourthreetwoone" Ludovico said rushing the final five numbers out in a space of one second, before roaring "Open fire!"

"They cheat" yelled Arthur diving away from the cubes and under one of the cars.

However it wasn't the sound of gunshots that came next, rather a roar of engines, three in fact, three very familiar engines and bright military grade head lights.

"Huh" Ludovico managed to state as he turned to look into the blinding flash of military grade headlights.

Alpha looked at Scar and yelled "Hunters run!"

* * *

Kylie gulped, she wasn't getting anywhere with the girl, who was still defiantly holding onto the dustbin lid in one hand, while she kept her other arm folded in her jumper pocket.

Backing off again, the two girls were almost on opposite sides of the alley before they spoke again. "Okay so you have had bad experiences with werewolves… okay, I get that…"

"Really," interjected the black haired girl?

Kylie let out a sigh. "Do you normally talk to people this way," she asked, once again getting fed up with the girls abrasive personality.

Vivien shrugged at this taking a few more steps back, her tired expression changing slightly as she regained some composure. "My apologies for it, just I am not used to having to talk to you lot… my brother usually handles that."

Kylie had barely any time to stammer a reply before the pale girl stood up straight and began to take deep long breaths. "But do you really think you want to help me?"

"Okay I am getting really confused here," Kylie blurted out. "Can you please tell me what on earth is going on and stop dodging the questions," she stated as she tapped her chest pleading with Vivien. "I know I'm a werewolf but I want to help… my pack does, so just stop leading me on a wild chase and let me help."

Silence fell over the entire alley, and Gothina had to swivel her ears again to make sure nobody was going to walk in on the two of them. However she kept her two eyes firmly fixated on the young women, who despite her severe looks face actually softened for a bit, as she looked at the werewolf again, although this time not in terror, not in anger, but a deep seated dread. A empathetic dread for Kylie, like she actually cared.

"You have to go," she stated simply and turned around beginning to head for the alley's exit, slamming the dustbin lid down on its container.

However Kylie was not going to just let this drop and began to make her way to the girl, her larger form quite easily bridging the distance between the two.

"Hey, I want to help!" the werewolf repeated reaching out to grab her, but freezing when she was the icy cold glare Vivien was giving her.

"If that's true then stay away… my brother and I have enough issues without you complicating them."

"What does that even mean" Gothina asked raising her hands, her voice stopping Vivien in mid stride again as she turned around to explain.

"Look its… its…" the girl began, her eyes slowly going wide as she looked past the werewolf raising her arm and pointing at something behind Gothina.

Instantly the werewolf spun around into a low crouch, letting her senses sink into the darkness as she tried to pick out whatever threat the girl had seen. And yet nothing? 'That was strange' Kylie thought as she turned back to face the girl. "What was that abou… Oh come on!"

Vivien was gone, trails of black smoke disappearing into the darkness of the night, leaving the werewolf alone in the alley. Still as the werewolf let the surprise and anger fade, she couldn't help but wonder about the whirlwind of emotions that the girl had presented to her. Still as began to climb out of the alley, she didn't notice the women in a brown suit standing at the end of the alley smiling right at her.

* * *

In the distance the two werewolves could hear the sporadic yells of the hunters, orders for the two Italians to "drop their weapons," and "find the wolves." Still the shouting was cut off by a sudden explosion and inconsistent yelling in Italian from one of the two brothers, which was returned in kind by a flurry of gunshots.

Quickly making their way round another pile of cars, Peter stopped and stretching his neck peered back the path they had come down, seeing a plume of black smoke rise into the night sky where they had just been.

"Who just carries around a grenade launcher," Peter wondered aloud, amazed as he looked down at Scar, who had gone back to rubbing his wounded stomach.

"Ernesto does, that and the chains swords and rocket launchers, although by my guess he couldn't put that in the boot," said a polite English voice beside them.

Quickly moving to face this person Alpha had barely enough time to recognise the voice as Arthurs as the boy in a white hoodie strode up beside both werewolves peering back at chaos in the distance.

"Good evening," he stated calmly as he rested himself against the car.

Alpha however was dumfounded, he hadn't even heard the boy approach them before he spoke. "Where did you come from?"

"Oh I never really left, your friend is right," he stated looking back at Scar. "I am good at running, but I always was better at hiding, although personally I don't like either of them," he managed to say in a rushed fashion cradling a long black box in his arms.

"What are you doing here" growled Scar as he took another deep breath, as he stared down at his gut. The wounds from that silver blade weren't healing as quick as he liked.

Arthur shrugged as he jumped down to Scar placing a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "I said I trusted you, not sure my sister would approve but still."

Scar threw his hand off and glowered at the human who simply shrugged and turned to look back at the carnage, muttering to himself.

"I believe we should leave."

"Agreed…" Alpha stated as he spun around only to hear a gunshot and something hit him in the back on the head.

Instinctively he spun around again the sound of the gunshot still vibrating in his ears and off of the metallic pseudo-walls of the scrap yard, as his snout bumped into Arthur's black box. As the boy in white slowly lowered it a small singe mark could be made out on one side, a lump of silvery metal falling away and hitting the floor.

"May I recommend we don't dawdle," Arthur recommended?

* * *

Ludovico grimaced from where he knelt, he hated when the boy did that it ruined half the fun. 'Still the job before personal feelings' he thought to himself as he now levelled his M4 for another shot at the wolves.

He had chosen the spot perfectly after his brother had created the necessary distraction for his escape. It was raised and provided an excellent view of the scrap yards, although the sight lines were frequently obscured by the inconsistent piling of cars, he could live with it.

Still as he fired again he watched as the wolves dived out the way, changing their speed and direction just enough to roll clear his shot. Letting out an internal sigh, although not daring to actually upset his regulated breathing, he took a mental note of how many rounds were in the magazine, while at the same time working out the direction they were traveling in.

"Heading for the fence? Hmm… Wood figured as much," he murmured casually to himself as he altered the sights on his rifle for long range, although he stopped when he heard someone attempting to sneak up behind him.

"Put the weapon down" called a young girl's voice, although Ludovico chose to ignore it.

Christie Argent had managed to sneak away from the small war that had broken out back at the scrap yards entrance after the grenade using psychopath had blown up one of their HMV's and then led half the team on a wild chase through the scrap yard. She had spotted this guy, whoever he is skulking off into the shadows and was pleased to see she had gotten the drop on him. Indeed as she pulled back the string on her bow, she took deliberate caution as she moved in.

"Put the weapon down," she repeated as the man slowly began to look over his shoulder, all the while going over her training in her head. The man however snorted and turned away for her, which Christie certainly wasn't expecting. "I said drop the gun!"

"A bow? How quaint," was the only reply as the man raised his rifle to fire at something in the blackness of the night.

'Right we tried this the easy way,' Christie muttered in her head as she moved in to disarm him.

However what happened next caught her off guard. The man in his crouch position kicked one of his legs back sharply into her shin while in mid step. The sudden snapping motion caught her off guard and now off footed as she saw his left hand snaked up to grab the arrow she had strung and tear it from her weapon. Indeed the sudden kick mixed with the simultaneous disarm made the young ill prepared for the M4 in the man's right hand which he swung round brining the butt of the weapon into her gut sending her over in her unbalanced state.

Ludovico now looming over the masked girl mused about the sudden attack taking a second to admire the arrow he had seized.

"Cute toy," he said flatly, his expression and tone remaining as blank and monotone as ever as he threw the arrow aside and raised his rifle at the girl.

* * *

Alpha had not exactly been running this whole time as the three of them made their way to the fence that separated the scrap yard from the wood. However as Arthur and Scar cleared the fence he heard the clanking of something in the distance and turned around and finally saw where the shots were coming from.

Ludovico was standing over a hunter, pressing a boot down on their chest as he aimed their rifle at their head. His whole body going into automatic he looked around for a projectile and saw an open car door. Grabbing it as he ran back he threw it with all his might at the Italian the old metallic substance slamming into the back of his head sending him over and off the pile of scrap he had been sniping from.

* * *

Christie had certainly not been expecting a car door to come flying out of nowhere and hit her attacker. And as she looked around she could only see the familiar back of a fleeing werewolf in the distance. 'Did he just… again' she started to think before the groaning of the man bellow her caught her attention.

Ludovico was getting up, and wasted no time in grabbing his rifle before looking around blearily. Indeed he only took a moment to examine the dirt that was covering his white suit, before looking in the direction from where the car door had flown in from. Seeing the wolf he didn't even bother to get up, lying prone as he flicked a small attachment at the bottom of his rifle to deploy a bipod as the Wolf reached the fence.

For some reason he had forgotten all about Christie, as he adjusted his sights and took aim his finger itching on the trigger, a mad rush swelling within the Italian.

Christie only took one second to recognise that the man was aiming at the back of the fleeing werewolf, the werewolf Alpha who had saved her?

'Well time to pay him back' Christie thought as she jumped, falling boots first right onto the back of the man lying bellow her, causing him to yell out in agony as he fired the shot. She caught an audible yelp from out in the distance, but Christie didn't see what happened next as she felt herself get thrown off by the enraged man. But this time she had the advantage.

Hooking her bow around the front of the gun and pulled the barrel up and twisted inwards causing the Italian to let go least his arm would break off. Swinging her bow out with one fluid motion Christie let the gun now go flying off into the distance, while at the same time drawing and preparing another arrow, pointing it right at the man.

"Hands behind your head!"

The Italian however merely glowered at her, the first real expression he had shown all night, a glare of pure undiluted hatred.

"Bitch," he grunted as he got to his feet, his impressive height allowing him to physically dwarf the smaller girl.

Christie however was having none of this and went again to order him to comply. "I said…" she began, as the man merely turned around and began to walk off. "I said stop!"

Christie let loose the arrow she had drawn planning to let it embed itself deeply within the car near the attackers head.

The man however didn't even flinch when the arrow sank a few centimetres into the solid industrial pressed metal and just merely stopped, a silver revolver appearing in his right hand, although he did not raise it.

"You really should not have gotten involved," the man said, the distant voices of the other hunters suddenly getting closer, "we will meet again soon… bitch" he added, with the last word he said carrying a heavy emphasis, as he disappeared into the darkness.

Christie ran after him, but as soon as he rounded a corner and disappeared from her view, he seemingly vanished.

"What the!"

* * *

"Ow… ow… ow…" Alpha groaned as he hobbled up the hill and into the woods, the large gaping wound in his shoulder causing him no end of pain.

Beside him Scar shook his head as he carried his friend along. "Hey this is your fault for heading back" he stated bluntly as they made their way through the pitch black woods.

"Quite dark, isn't it," Arthur muttered a small distance back as he slipped for the third time on an unseen obstacle in the undergrowth.

Scar snorted. "Not really" he stated still wondering why the human was following them.

"Oh yes," said the blonde haired boy as if he remembered an obvious fact, before adding for no reason the words, "my apologies, you can see in the dark."

Scar huffed again, "why are you still following us," he asked clearly aggravated by the boy's presence?

"What I said I trusted you," Arthur stated simply as if it was obvious, "plus, Alpha was it needs help."

Scar finally stopped in a small clearing, letting Alpha try to stand on his own while looking back at English teenager.

"And what makes you think you can help," he asked baring his teeth a little at the man? "You know we heal quickly, right?"

Completely unphased he nodded, and took a few steps forward seemingly uninterested by Scars attempts at intimidation, as he made his way towards Alpha. "I do," he stated as he slipped slightly on a log, "b-but not from that wound, those guys will be using specialised silver ammunition," he added as he caught himself.

Scar quickly got in-between the two of them and stared down at Arthur, his teeth bared again, as Arthur calmly strolled around him.

"Plus I have medical training and experience at dealing with these wounds," he admitted, motioning to his leg, as he reached the wounded werewolf. "Okay can you please tell me where it hurts?"

At that moment Alpha let himself collapse were he hit the soil with a dull thud and let out a long uncomfortable groan. All the while those two had been arguing the pain in his right shoulder had finally gotten to the point where it had become unbearable. As he now lay there on the ground the pain he felt from the silver bullet that had logged itself somewhere in his shoulder was seemingly worming its way throughout his upper body.

"Ow," he managed to grunt as he took long deep breaths.

Arthur mused as he bent down to look at the physically exhausted werewolf. "Odd,"

"Odd how" growled Scar, still unsatisfied with Arthurs reason for following them.

"Ludovico usually goes for head shots… your friend is quite lucky."

Scar once again snapped his voice echoing around the darkened trees, "Lucky! You're the reason we were out here in the first place!"

Arthur nodded, his expression continuing to exert the same serene calmness he had held since their escape. "And once again I cannot express how sorry I am," the young man admitted sounding very calm but none the less distracted as he bent down to inspect the wound. "Also you should trust me a little, after all you're not hurt anymore either."

"What do you mean," the werewolf growled getting ready to tear the human off of Alpha.

"Well you stomach has healed up quite nicely" the British boy said, not looking at Scar as he poked the wounded shoulder.

Alpha winced. "Ow… please don't do that," came a disgruntled reply from the wounded werewolf, before he turned to Scar to make sure he didn't try to punch the boy unconscious for the very deliberate move. "Scar don… are you alright," Peter then asked surprised to see the werewolf inspecting his well-toned, and healed, stomach, placing his claws through small holes in the abdomen of his suit.

Scar however didn't hear as he muttered to himself. "How on earth?" he stammered, absolutely amazed at seeing the rather deep knife wounds from the silver switchblade were gone. His confused expression manifesting his bewilderment at how this was possible, silver wounds usually took day or two to heal and nearly always left a small if temporary scar that took another week to disappear. But right now his stomach felt like good as new.

Arthur meanwhile tapped Alpha on the back to get his attention, while smiling down at him. "I have something that can help you," he stated quite pleasantly, "if you want it? But I will tell you it will be painful."

Alpha tensed up, seeing enough tragic movies to see where this was going. "No I don't want to be euthen… euth… to be killed," he tried to say almost shocked the boy would suggest it.

The wind blew shrilly through the trees as an eerie silence settled on the wood again, Arthur looking almost shocked that the werewolf would even suggest such a thing. It was the first time Arthur had seemed genuinely shocked since they had started talking. However the stunned expression softened into a warm and amused smile as he placed his hand gently on Alpha's arm.

"I was talking about taking the shrapnel out of your shoulder," he admitted, his tone keeping the same pleasant politeness, "I was only asking as they have used a hollow point round, so the bullet has expanded while in your body. Removing it can be quite painful, especially since I do not have any anaesthetic."

"Oh erm… yeah sure," an embarrassed Peter said as he contemplated at how he had jumped the gun.

"No problem," Arthur stated with a warm smile visible through the darkness, "and do not worry about disinfectant, your own healing abilities should treat that." He explained as he leaned down to the wound before adding in an offhand remark, "oh and the correct term is euthanasia."

Scar however none the less voiced his concern as he loomed over the two. "How do we know we can trust you?"

"As I said I have medical experience, also you have my word as a… gentleman," the boy admitted as he reached into the wound, blood squirting up his white sleeves.

Alpha himself winched as he felt Arthur fingers rooting around in the gaping hole in his shoulder, it was not only painful but oddly disturbing to feel his torn muscles being moved aside while a person who was working his way towards the centre of the pain.

"Hmm, you are indeed lucky, he repeated, "the shrapnel has only logged itself into your bone… your skeletal structure appears undamaged," he commented as the werewolf felt him pinch something inside of him and pull it out. Alpha caught the glint of something silvery resting between the Englishmen's two gore stained fingers , while he yell out in pain. "I know this hurts, but it has to be done. By the way may I use this to operate," Arthur asked holding up the tiny jagged piece of silver to Peters eye level.

"Won't it hurt?"

"Yes," Arthur said in a saddened if serious tone, "but it will let me get to the parts that have moved into your muscle, some dissection is required."

"But isn't that dange…"

"Alpha please trust me, you will heal," the human stated as he continued to hold out the silver.

Something about the boy's tone of voice struck Peter as sincere, and then again if it stopped the pain in his shoulder? "Go ahead," he nodded, "just make it quick."

"Very well," Arthur said his calm tone taking on a serious edge as he went back to work, "Might I suggest focussing on something else?"

"That may be a little hard, but okay" Alpha tried to say through the pain of feeling some of his muscle being cut back. Taking a long deep breath, he tried to think of something to take his mind off the 'surgery'. "So who exactly were those two men hunting you?"

Alpha suddenly felt Arthur's hands in his shoulder stop moving, as for some reason his first question had struck a nerve.

"Arthur?"

"They were Ludovico and Ernesto, the Falco brothers," the boy eventually said his tone a little more tense then it had been, but keeping the same civility as always. "Those two…" he said before pausing as he mulled over the words in his head, "gentlemen," he continued waving his free hand, "have been after me and my sister for the last six months."

Alpha was about to ask just how long they had been running again when he felt another sharp pain, causing him to let out another yelp. Still as the boy dropped another shard he began to feel the writing agony in his upper body begin to recede.

"Six months," he asked amazed? "What exactly did you do?"

"It's complicated," was the only answer as Alpha felt another sharp pinch in his shoulder.

Still concentrating through the pain, the werewolf managed to get out a few words. "How so?"

Alpha's tone however seemed to be getting to the human and his face darkened. "So tell me how recently were you turned" Arthur suddenly said asking his own question as he cut another piece of muscle back.

Alpha was caught by surprise, and not just by the pain. "Erm… a few months, how did you know I had been…?"

"Turned? Your demeanour and muscle structure," was the answer, "your friendlier then most born werewolves I have met, and physically you're not as developed as some wolves. Like your friend there." He stated nodding at Scar who glared back at him.

"And how do you know all this" Scar demanded getting up and towering over him?

Arthur calm face at that point once again darkened before flashing back to a cheerful smile. And to answer Scar all he offered was a shrug as he pulled out another shard of silver and dropped it. "P-personal interest," he tried to say, although his tone carried a nervous twinge to it.

Scar bent down opposite to Arthur, his teeth bared just centimetres away from the boys head. "And you just so happen to have an interest in werewolves… who shouldn't exist?"

Arthur once again did not immediately answer and merely pressed both his blood stained palms over the wound on Alpha's shoulder. "Lovely night isn't it," the boy said in a forced calm tone.

At this point Scar snapped. "Will you stop dodging the questions," he yelled grabbing the boy the scruff of the neck and lifting him off the ground.

"Scar wait," Peter demanded but getting to his feet and grabbing the jet black werewolf with his hands trying to pull him back, before noticing his shoulder didn't hurt anymore.

"Well that was rude," Arthur stated simply looking the werewolf straight in the eyes, "just as I finished too."

Indeed Alpha was marvelling at his shoulder, his gaping wound was gone, and as he rubbed where it was he couldn't even feel a scar under his fur. It was almost like he had not been hit in the first place. 'How did he do that?'

Scar though hadn't seemed to have noticed and his snout curled up to reveal his rows of sharp teeth, as he glared daggers at the boy who seemed totally unphased by the situation. However the werewolf none the less dropped the boy as Alpha turned back towards them.

"Thank you" was the simple reply of the short blonde haired boy as he landed before bowing his head at Scar. "And you are right, I was dogging the question… for that you have my apologies just that I don't wish you to get hurt."

Scar blinked, "Huh?"

"What do you mean," Alpha asked looking down at the boy whose expression had become rather dejected.

"As I said before you have gotten involved in something you shouldn't have, this mine and my sisters curse to bare, so I bid you farewell."

And with that word the boy began to walk off, but Alpha dashed in front of him, holding him in place. "Woah slow down, you didn't even give me time to thank you, and what do you mean curse?"

The boy once again dodged the question, trying to brush the werewolf aside with a blank stare. "Please, as enjoyable as it is to meet friendly werewolves, I cannot let you shoulder my responsibility."

Alpha briefly scratched at where his wound had once been, unsure if the boy was making a pun or not. However like Scar he was having enough and he stood there his arms folded as he looked down at Arthur. "You're in trouble," he stated, "and we want to help."

"Don't drop me in this," Scar spat sourly from behind.

Ignoring the grumpy wolfs words, something about Alpha's statement seemed to catch Arthur's interest, as he cocked an eyebrow and looked at him critically. "Why?"

Alpha shrugged as he searched for the words. "As corny as it sounds" he admitted, "it's the right thing to do,"

To Alpha surprise the boy smiled, almost amused by what he had just said. Indeed he took a step towards the werewolf and began once again to look him up and down as he stared intensely at him, before meeting his eyes. And once again Alpha felt quite unnerved as he did this, almost feeling like he should try to cover himself up.

"No it is not corny. You really do believe that don't you," Arthur finally said his smile growing bigger.

To which Alpha nodded.

"Do you have any paper?"

"Err not on me right now," Alpha admitted looking back at Scar who shrugged.

"Very well," Arthur nodded, stroking his chin in thought, "meet me where the river meets the train lines at the south of the city, me and my sister have our hiding place out there."

"Quite quick to tell us where your based at," Scar said, a little more harshly then he meant to.

"Wait I thought you were sleeping in that alley," Alpha stated a little surprised.

Arthur nodded, "As I said I trust you," he admitted nodding at Scar, " and we were only staying there for the night, we thought we spotted the Ludovico and Ernesto earlier in the day when we left… made our escape from the school, we were being cautious."

"About that," Scar growled, "don't do it again."

"Dually noted and apologised for," Arthur said simply, giving a small bow at both the werewolves in front of him. "But you should probably think on these two statements before you agree to help me first." the boy admitted ducking under the Alphas arm as he headed back in the direction of town.

"One, my name is Arthur Amell, adopted son of Gabriel Amell," he said not giving either wolves time to respond. "Now that will not mean much to you but I am thinking your friend will get the next bit," he added, looking back over his shoulder while he walked, stopping to look at Derek. "Gabriel Amell, my father is the… is the…" he began saying before almost chocking as he got to the final words.

"Are you alright" Alpha asked a little shocked upon seeing a trickle of tears pour down his face.

"Yes… yes I am," the boy nodded wiping the tears away before fixing the two werewolves with a serious look. "This isn't easy for me to say… so I am sorry. But my father 'was' the Butcher. And yes I mean that butcher," he stated nodding at Scar, before turning to go, a small choke emanating from him as he left. "Goodnight."

For a minute Alpha was unsure how to react, the wind in the forest blew through the trees as the odd insect life chirped. Indeed he had to agree with the boy that he had not understood anything about what he had just said. However as he turned to face Scar he was immediately taken aback.

"Peter" growled the werewolf, his face filled with what could only be called dread, "you have gone and done something terrible!"

* * *

As the two wolves made their way home through the forest, a pair of strong yellow eyes opened somewhere in the darkness. Their owner briefly shifted their gaze at the back of the two werewolves who ran off into the distance, before turning their eyes onto the back of the boy who was walking away towards the town. As they tracked Arthur's movement the twin yellow orbs narrowed and a low growl could be heard rumbling throughout the wood. When it had finished a set of white teeth could be seen flashing in the moonlight, a deep voice whispering something in the dark.

"All I needed to hear… hunter."

* * *

 **Authors notes**

* * *

My god this is a long chapter. I know I have written longer but can someone please tell me if I stuffed to much in here please?

However apart from that I think it went quite well.


	5. Chapter 2 Part 1: Distorted Perceptions

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men chapter 2: Part 1: Distorted Perceptions**

* * *

The roar of the rain outside was muffled by the clear glass windows of the Half-Moon café, causing the clean and pleasant coffee house being relatively quiet despite it being a Saturday morning. The storm had swept in sometime before the sun had risen, and had not seen fit to stop since; driving away nearly all the customers with only a few dedicated people daring to show up.

Peter had been one of these people, especially considering his adopted big sister had offered to use the place as a staging post for tonight's 'investigation.' Peter dressed as he normally did with a jacket and jeans, Mikey sitting across from him in black sleeveless coat and demine trousers. Both had made their way through the rain, to get a head start for the mission later that evening, the incredibly strange mission, and were now waiting for the others to discreetly arrive. Still as recent information had revealed this could easily turn into a true nightmare.

The Butcher, even the title sounded ominous. After everything that had happened last night, it was the one thing that had stuck with him, the polite, if dirty, blonde haired boy's gagging fear on mentioning who his father was. And Derek's murderous glare he had given Peter only seconds after Arthur had run off.

Still as he sat there in the small booth, Mikey sitting across from him absently reading a copy of Dinoman, he couldn't help but go over the meeting they had last night.

* * *

 **Last Night**

* * *

The parlour fire crackled merrily as Singh dropped a few more coals into the grate, the entire room almost filled to bursting as the various pack members gathered round waiting expectantly as they all squeezed tightly onto the plush leather couches and armchairs.

Peter, Kylie and Derek had just finished giving their halves of the events last night, having gotten in just in as the first drops of rain had begun to fall. All three of them were still wearing their pack outfits, barely having any time to change since the 'emergency' meeting was called after the news hit of a shoot up in the outskirts of town. The group of teenage werewolves however listened expectantly as the tapping of rain droned from outside, all of it catching their interest piece by piece, the two mad Italian gunmen, Peter's rather reckless car chase, the running children, Kylie's close brush with her identity, and Arthur's openness about who his father was.

Mikey was the first to speak up from the armchair, Kylie merrily sitting on his knee, the two of them looking at Peters grandfather Sir John for answers. "So who is this Butcher guy?" He asked, being just as confused as Peter in this matter.

Sir John however did not have time to answer, as Derek was very quick to interject any statements with his own grim viewpoints. "Bad news," he growled as he slouched on the fires mantelpiece, a sallow look in his eye.

Still as the silence hung in the air as it often did when Derek got like this, the group could only marvel at his bluntness.

However Ashley, keen-eyed as ever managed to see through the bluster, and gave a small grin, as she peered over from the couch where she and Maria were sitting. "Are you afraid Derek," she teased, slightly surprised at her own daring at trying to get a rise out of the short tempered werewolf, although not seriously thinking he was.

"N-no, and stop prying," he quickly replied as he crossed his arms and glowered at her. However everyone caught the small shake in his voice; it was the first time any of them had ever heard even a quiver like it come from him.

"Oh my god you are," the blonde haired girl said in genuine surprise, covering her mouth as she glanced over at Maria, who in her traditional calm fashion raised only a single eyebrow in curiosity.

Derek however tried to bluff his way out, by half growling at her to shut up, while trying to avoid eye contact. However for Peter and Ashley it wasn't just Derek's tone that had caught them off guard, it was his whole body posture. True he frequently slouched and crossed his arms, but this time he seemed to be pulling it a little more tightly, like he was more ridged rather than grumpy. He was clearly trying to dodge the question, and both of them could tell whoever this Butcher person was, he had Derek on edge.

Mikey however gave a small laugh as ever voiced what everyone was thinking. "He must be a pretty scary guy to be able to frighten Derek huh?" Earning a small chuckle from Kylie.

"Can it Corvis," Derek growled through gritted teeth.

However before the situation could develop any further, and authoritative voice called out to them. "All right that's enough," Sir John stated, raising a hand as if to signal an end to hostilities between the mop haired photographer and black haired bad boy. For a second Peters grandfather did not do anything, and purely sat there, the nearby fire casting long shadows over his face before he finally spoke up.

Sir John was older then he appeared, but still despite his lycanthropy's slowing his aging, Peter was quite amazed at how much older he suddenly looked this evening as the lines on his face suddenly became more drawn.

"Mr Corvis I would ask you to not antagonise Derek" Sir John said firmly causing everyone to stop chuckling mid breath. "While he may be on edge, he has good reason to be, as the Butcher is no laughing matter. Especially if he turns out to be real as these two mystery children say he is."

"Wait what do you mean real," Mikey began to ask before Maria getting tired of all the conversation butted in with her trademark calm voice?

"Care to tell us who he is," she asked as she turned her brown eyes towards the rather old looking gentlemen.

Sir John sighed, the long tired sigh of a man who had lived an intense life and was reaching back into his memory to pull out a rather uncomfortable event. "Listen, do you still watch monster films now that you are turned, films about werewolves going mad and indiscriminately killing people, for example?"

No one really answered him, all looking at each other rather confused. Peter could only wonder where his grandfather was going with this, as it seemed like such an odd question to ask in the middle of an otherwise serious gathering. For a brief moment the only noise was the cracking of the fire as a log snapped under the heat and split the silence with a sharp crack. And yet no one reacted, everyone just staring at Sir John.

"The reason I ask is that not many werewolves or any supernatural creatures I have met really seem to be scared of them, too many of them see such stories as insulting and grossly inaccurate." Sir John explained as his eyes now moved across the room keeping their attention, letting the silence fall. "But let me ask you this, you all enjoy those kind of stories, being scared I mean, you enjoy those kinds of stories?"

There was somewhat of a nervous nod from half the pack, most of them finally getting where he was going with this, and Ashley was once again the first to voice her opinion.

"Well I guess so, if you mean like the campfire stories," she asked tentatively as she laid back in the leather sofa?

"Like the one Peter told" Mikey asked?

Sir John once again nodded, his stern expression remaining as stoic as a carved statue, as he once again glanced at each of them.

"And this Butcher is one of those stories, a campfire or bedtime story for monsters?" Ashley asked, moving a strand of blonde hair out of her face as she spoke, a nervous pang appearing in her voice as she spoke.

Sir John nodded again, not saying a word as he turned to Sigin who had just appeared beside the man with a cup of coffee, which he took gladly. Derek however growled out a sullen answer to the question in everyone's heads.

"My dad often told me stories of the Butcher when I was cub, he would tell of a monster hunter who would come in the night and snatch up young wolves who misbehaved and take them away from their families so they could never see them again."

Mikey gave a surprised snort as he looked at Derek, who instantly returned the remark with a cold stare that bore into the young man with a blood filled rage.

As Mikey however looked away, Peter couldn't help but speak up in concern, there was more to this then they were letting on. "Why do I get the feeling you are being deliberately vague with us?" A remark which caused Sir John to lower the cup from his lips and stare straight at his grandchild with an amused grin. A grin that only remained there for a split second.

"You are right, I am sorry" he flatly stated. "But you must understand that to get to the heart of the significance of someone stating to be related to the Butcher, let alone saying they are his son, it is as if he is asking a werecreature, or any mythological creature to kill them. I have met many people who would love to get revenge on that man for what he has done."

Peter couldn't help but ask the obvious question, "and what is it he has done?"

"Everything" Sir John growled his eyes flashing yellow as he sipped his cup for the fourth time. "All the stories, the real stories mind you, speak of a human, a single human, appearing some fifty years ago and just wiping out whole packs, and entire covens of vampires."

Peter and Ashley shared a nervous glance at that, while Kylie absently hugged Mikey a little tighter.

"Whole packs?" Ashley voiced sceptically, after all they knew how much stronger they had gotten since turning, but one human could do that.

Sir John nodded. "He is not a mythical creature, some vengeful spirit or supernatural bogyman despite how many tales portray him as such. He is a man, a man who has achieved the impossible, lasting fifty years of a personal war against all of our kind and only ever being driven back by one man. Any group he laid eyes one would be dead within the year, slaughtered in methodical precision during bloody single combat." Peter became aware at this point of a small rattling and quickly saw in was the china cup in his grandfather's hand.

'Is he scared?'

"And yes, I mean single combat, this man has fought werewolves, vampires, ogres you name it, one on one and been victorious. And when I mean whole packs I mean everyone, the men, women and… and…" Sir John placed his cup down and absently grabbing his arm steadily to help him lower it, his stoic expression relaxing as he took a deep but solemn breath. "I am sorry…" he stated, "but I was unfortunate enough to see the aftermaths of a few of these attacks. Not even the children survived."

Kylie grip over Mikey suddenly intensified, pulling him face first into her chest as she let out a squeak of horror. Peter and Ashley glanced again at each other, still worried, while Derek glowered darkly to a non-descript area of the room. Maria raised both her eyebrows, her mouth slightly open.

"To simply explain it, the way humans see werewolves, the supernatural sees the Butcher. However the truth in this case is much more terrifying then ours." Sir John signed as he slumped back into his chair, looking almost physically exhausted from recounting the tale.

"And now we know who he is," Derek growled, with a hint of glee, "Amell."

Instantly there was a blur of yellow, and Derek found a finger jabbed firmly into his ribs, a rather serious tone talking back at him. "Derek Xander you aren't thinking about hurting those two kids are you," a rather cross Ashley asked standing in front of him as she whipped out her phone?

Derek immediately tried to manage a flustered response but failed as Ashley glared at him. "Well, no… but…"

Peter though cutting through the argument, with as much skill as he could muster asked the important question. "Okay so, in spite of what their father may have done, we need to know who these 'two' are? Arthur, and Vivien."

Ashley gave a simple reply of "on it" as she strode back to her seat while busily typing away on her phone. Kylie meanwhile raised her hand attentively looking at each member of the pack as they all looked at her, "so I am guessing from that logic Peter we are still helping them?"

"Yes, and as stupid as it sounds we should help them, or at least find out more about them, irrespective of who they are. They are in trouble, and it's the right thing to do."

Derek however growled again, but said nothing and just marched to the door to get changed out of the spandex he was wearing. One thought running through his brain: 'He is going to get us all killed.'

Mikey waited for the door to inevitable to slam before letting out a small cheer of "here, here" in a mocking English tone, which earned him a raised eyebrow from Sir John. Ashley meanwhile let out a cheer of sucess as she got up and strode over to Peter holding out her Phone for him to see.

"Found this on the Amell's."

Taking the phone, Peter scrolled to the headline and read it allowed for everyone to hear.

' _World renowned Philanthropist in mourning'_

' _The search for Dr. Gabriel Amell children continues. The medical community held its breath this morning for nothing as the latest investigation into the sudden disappearance of the good Dr. children found nothing after recent leads in Texas turn up dry.'_

' _A noted surgeon, philanthropist and leader in world Medicine Doctor Amell is respected for his proactive role in helping disaster zones, and using his charity to fund his mission to bring quality medical care to the needy. Tragically his two adopted Children Arthur and Vivien were declared missing after he returned home from a conference in India. No one is sure how or why the two disappeared, and investigations as of yet have shown no motivation for any attacks against the family. What is known that his two children were sighted in Texas five months ago in police care, although disappeared themselves after a brazen attack on the police station they were staying. A attack which left five officers dead, and twelve bystanders wounded."_

"Shouldn't that have been front-page news" Mikey asked a little surprised at the brutality of the attack, as Kylie got off him to go and look over Peter's shoulder at the story.

Peter nodded before turning back to the story, slightly worried by the predicament.

' _However this lead apparently has led to nothing, as despite the best efforts by officer the two children remaining missing, and accusations of foul play and kidnap have run rampant for months. The authorities are once again asking for any information on the two children, or the gunmen from the assault, with Gabriel Amell offering free lifetime medical care to anyone who can help him. None the less money for the Minerva Trust has been flowing non-stop since the families disappearance. The Minerva Trust, named after Gabriel's murdered wife, has officially stated that in light of their founders children disappearance says that it will keep up his good work for as long as they are able.'_

' _This reporter would like to offer his condolences to the Medical community, and to the tragedy of a truly great man, who is beset by monsters.'_

"Wow they lay it on thick, are we sure this guy is evil, they really seem to like him" Mikey joked sarcastically, earning a glower from Ashley. "What?"

Ignoring Mikey and running his thumb against the phone, Peter scrolled down to the bottom of the article where a picture had been posted. It showed three individuals, a tall man and two children. The adult in the centre was obviously Gabriel, an Indian man with frizzy white hair which was swept back into a short mane while his long and fluffy, but finely groomed beard flowed down to his chest over a smart black two piece suit. From the picture Peter could tell two things, one Gabriel was old with dozens of wrinkles covering his weather beaten face. And two despite that, Peter could also tell he was a man of action. Unlike most men who looked his age, Gabriel had a firm resolute posture that seemed to speak of authority while and an unnaturally well-kept physique showed through the suit making it seem two sizes two small. His muscles seemingly distorting its shape causing dozes of creases and stresses across his extremely large frame. Altogether despite his obvious seniority Gabriel looked like a wrestler rather than a Doctor, and had the expression of a man who seemed world weary, despite the joyful smile he had.

This smile was directed down to a raised arm, on which sat one of the two children. A boy in white shorts and a striped shirt, who didn't seem to be older than five. He had bright blonde hair and smiling face and was unmistakable Arthur from last night. He was holding a toy sword high over his head for the camera to see, as he balanced easily on his adopted parents massive tree trunk of an arm.

The final figure was a rather small girl with black hair, probably around five as well, which had to be Vivien. She was glancing out from behind Gabriel leg, holding onto what little fabric she could in her tiny hands, as she looked awkwardly at the camera.

"That's the man who kills whole packs of werewolves," Kylie asked, a little surprised by the rather pleasant family picture.

"Says it was taken during a holiday to India" Peter said, reading the info off the caption, as he tried to understand the exact same question Kylie had asked. 'How could this man, a respected doctor, be a mass murdering psycho?'

"They look like a happy family" Ashley said almost disbelieving it herself, "still remember the last word, 'who is beset by monsters,' a little suspicious if you ask me."

Peter nodded seriously as he began to rack his brain for what Arthur had told him. "The boy told me to meet him tomorrow where the train tracks meet the river, I think that is where we need to make our next move."

"Sound like a plan" said Maria to Peter as Sir John leaned back in his chair scratching his chin.

Peter caught the sudden change in the air and turned back to his grandfather who was now once again lost in though. "Something wrong?"

Sir John once again didn't reply immediately and turned to looking out the window before deciding to answer. "Peter."

"Yes?"

"I will warn you, if you do meet the Butcher you will all have to leave."

Peter shrugged, but personally agreed. "Sounds like the sensible plan after what you told us. We will pull back here if he shows up, don't you worry."

Sir John shook his head as he turned to Peter his eyes now glaring at him. "No Peter, if he turns up we all need to leave town."

* * *

A dull slap across Peter face brought him back from last night's events. Snapping to attention he quickly realised in his pseudo dream state he had accidently let his arm slip and had banged head first into the table.

"Ow" he muttered as he grabbed his cheek, before looking over at a sniggering Mikey who was peering over the top of his comic. Peter himself smiled back, realising he must have looked pretty stupid.

Still as drumming from the rain intensified Peter none the less began to think. Was he really being this reckless to help someone, sure Derek had rushed off in his anger but it wasn't the first time the two didn't see eye to eye, and yes this Butcher was dangerous, but yet Arthur had been so polite. 'This is too weird.'

"Hey don't worry about it Peter" Mikey said from across the table as he flicked a page in his comic book, causing a confused Peter to look at him.

"How did you?"

"Your face, you have a really bad poker face when you're thinking really hard" the brown haired boy joked as he put the comic down and grinned across at his friend. "Also your heart rate was going like crazy… are you really that worried?"

Peter shook his head a little torn inside. "No that's not it… but… if Arthur and Vivien are really hunters, and this is a trap…" letting out a long sigh Peter rubbed his forehead.

"Hey don't sweat it Peter, you have fought a giant frog, a giant blue hulk on steroids… a giant jerk…"

"Wait who was the giant jerk?"

Mikey flashed a mischievous smile as he rolled his eyes. "Roland" he sniggered, causing Peter to chuckle as well. Mikey always knew how to cheer him up.

"Hey don't worry about it, if I were you I would be more worried about what you had to say to Christie to cancel our movie tonight."

'Oh dear' Peter thought as he bolted upright as his mind went into overdrive, he had completely forgotten. The three of them had planned to go to the movie this evening to watch some old classic monster movies that were being shown. "Yeah you're right, what should I say!"

"Think fast" Mikey said seriously lowering his comic to nod in the direction of the counter.

Carefully looking around the corner of the booth Peter gave a nervous smile as Christie was looming over him with a cup of coffee as her grin grew much wider. "Hey Peter" she stated quite enthusiastically, the rain coat she was wearing seemingly drenched.

"Christie" Peter began a little startled, trying to compose himself before he had to break the news and call the event off. Lord knows he felt bad doing this for what felt like the twentieth time. "Christie I erm…"

"Surprised to see me" she teased, "yeah I know, not really my kind of weather, still I have something I need to tell you."

Peter nodded, shuffling along the booths seat to allow her to sit down. However Christie shook her head sadly as she rubbed her arm, looking almost as nervous as her friend. "Mikey, Peter I can't make tonight, there has been a family emergency. I am so sorry, I know it's kind of last minute and…" she started breaking into a long rambling speech, taking both Peter and Mikey by surprise.

"Erm… that's fine," a smiling Peter said, "if its serious you need to be there, we understand." Meanwhile he couldn't help but think 'wow, how convenient!'

"Yep" Mikey nodded in agreement a little more enthusiastically then he should have, causing Christie to look between the two of them.

"Err… are you sure, I mean its…"

Peter nodded slowly as he reached out to Christie and touched her arm and smiled. "Don't worry, look go help your family it will be on again next year so we can reschedule some other time."

Nodding solemnly her expression broke back into a smile as she checked her watch and looked out into the intense rainstorm that was lapping against the windows. The form of a sports car was just visible rolling up to the pavement just outside the shop but beyond that not even the two werewolves could see through it.

"So Christie why did you head here on a day like this" Mikey asked as he folded up his comic looking to look out the window, the bell ringing as some customers strode in.

Christie did not immediately react and blinked for a second as her mind was dragged back to the café; "oh that, well…." She looked over her shoulder at Alice who was in the midst of pouring a series of drinks for the two men who had just walked in. "It's a secret," she said as she gave Peter a teasing glance.

Peter rolled his eyes. It was only fair she got to keep some of her own, after that big fight the two had a few weeks prior. Still he couldn't help keep wondering why she was checking her watch.

"Oh dear… I have to go," she stated biting her lip as her brow fell into an exasperated expression. "Sorry you two, I have to run, hope this keeps me warm" she laughed holding up the cardboard coffee cup as she turned to go.

Peter and Mikey were half way saying goodbye to their friend when they both saw her walk straight into the man walking away from the counter. Coffee and lattes went flying as Christie was knocked off her feet by the large bullish man who had almost charged out of the shop after buying his and his companions drinks.

Indeed Peter saw it all happen in slow motion, seeing Christie fall backwards, her feet knocked out from under her. And instantly he reached out an arm and caught her in one instinctive movement, resting his friend in one arm as the coffee cups slammed into the floor the brown and creamy coloured liquids splashing and running all over the place. Christie herself looked around, a little unsure where exactly she was and stared up into Peters eyes smiling awkwardly as her friend held her just off the floor. Peter smiled back with an equally unsure smile 'god this is awkward' he thought, although his thoughts were swiftly driven out by the sudden ruckus by the man she had bumped into. And upon hearing the man's voice Peter's blood ran cold.

"Dam you, voi pezzo di merda, I ought to gut you, voi puttana" he yelled in his Italian accent as coffee dripped down his leather jacket.

The strawberry blonde man reached down and seized Christie by the scruff of her coat pulling her out of Peter's arms and up to his snarling face, his fist raised ready to strike.

"Do you have any idea how much this jacket costs you cazzo American!"

Once again the young werewolf felt the world around him slow to a crawl. A strange pounding in his ears began to beat as he saw the man, the same thug from last night, Ernesto, holding his best friend a foot of the floor ready to punch her in the face. He could also see Mikey, getting ready to leap out the booth, Alice from behind the bar bending down to do something, all the while Christie balled up her fists. Peter realised through his intense anger something bad was going to go down.

However to his surprise Ernesto dropped her, his hands reaching for his own throat as he began to stumble back gagging. Everyone in the café stared on in amazement as before any of them could act the man who had followed this thug in had taken his umbrella and in a swift movement that not even Peter could track had wrapped its handle around Ernesto's thick throat, pulling it back from the tube, while one hand almost casually rested on the strawberry blonde man's back starving locking him in place. He had in one movement pulled the man off Christie and disarmed him with a rather elaborate chokehold.

At first the man made no movements or sounds apart from a slight hiss of something decompressing, and only stood their, obscured by Ernesto's thick frame As Peter and Mikey rushed to catch Christie while she fell, everyone in the café could hear the clear but sharp English accent of the man from behind Ernesto, reprimanding for his action. "Ernesto that's enough" he stated as he in one simple movement pulled him arm away and swung the umbrella over the Italian's head to release him.

"G-go-god dam it Ga…" Ernesto began to breath before the umbrella's handle was bought down sharply on the back of his head causing him to yell out in pain. "What was that for?"

At first there was no response, only a small hiss of something decompressing, however it didn't take long for whoever it was to speak. "Do not use the lords name in vain Ernesto" the man preached in a serious but calm tone, "now replace our drink's" he ordered calmly, using the umbrella to point to the counter.

However it was Alice's time to speak up angrily addressing the man who was still masked by the large bulky form of the Italian thug. "Do you honestly think I will serve you again after what you pulled," the long haired Japanese girl yelled angrily?

Mikey and Peter meanwhile helped Christie to her feet, Peter brushing her down as all three of them glowered over at the large Italian man who glared back with equal contempt. He was livid. Peter however tapped Mikey on the shoulder as Christie and her assailant continued their glaring contest, and managed to whisper in his friend's ear the simple message. "It's one of the men from last night, the brothers."

Mikey stopped for a second half hovering between picking up Christie's fallen cup before grabbing it and leaning back towards Peter, "you sure… what about the other one?"

"No he was Italian as well… he sounds to…"

"To what…" Mikey asked hearing the hesitation in his friends voice.

"British" Peter gulped remembering the boy Arthur's rather crisp accent from last night as he told him about his father.

"Excuse me" came the deep booming voice of the British man from above them, causing the two werewolf boys to spin round and look right up at him.

And boy they had to look up, the man was a giant. And as Peter glanced at his dark brown complexion, wrinkled face and thick white beard and hair, he felt his blood run cold. There looking back at him was a perfect replica of the man who Ashley had shown him on the internet the night before, a man lorded for his altruistic exploits, and a man who apparently could wipe out whole werewolf packs. However seemingly oblivious to Peter's plight, Gabriel Amell warmly smiled at him, while he placed a small blue cylinder inside his suits chest pocket. Peter recognised it as an inhaler.

"Ahem.. may I" the large man asked mid cough as he held a hand out for the cup in Mikey's hand.

Alice however from behind the counter was trying to get him to leave. "Look, I don't care what you say get out" she ordered in a wary tone, pulling out her mobile!

Gabriel however took the cup Mikey offered and strode back to the counter and placed it firmly in front of Alice, while letting a series of coins clatter onto the stylised surface beside it.

"Our previous orders" Gabriel announced in an authoritative but calm tone almost seeming to ignore Alice previous remark, "and whatever the poor lady my compatriot bumped into wants, completely on me," he stated as his tone took on a note of deep sorrow.

Alice blinked at him, caught slightly dumfounded as she stood their half way through dialling for the police, and ready to knock his money off the counter. Indeed she was not sure how to proceed and only slowly lowered her mobile as Gabriel turned back to Christie who had a look of equal surprise on her face.

"Come, come now" Gabriel said with a calm and polite smile, "whatever you like mam, no price is too high."

"Erm… just what I had." The auburn haired muttered a little unsure on what was happening, her eyes darting over at Ernesto who was still nursing his neck as he now glared at Gabriel.

"Very well then… that comes to $30.29" the large Indian man smiled as he counted out the change, "or am I short," he then asked as he reached into his suit for more money.

Alice however raised her hands while she moved to the tills, "no, no" she said seemingly won over by the man's sudden generosity, "that's right, let me just pour them."

From where he was standing however, Peter was feeling his heart race, and Mikey guessed it to. They were four feet away from a man who was likely a psychopathic hunter of werewolves and other supernatural creatures. 'This is unreal' Peter thought as he took a step away with feet splashing through the spilt coffee.

This faint sound caused Gabriel to slowly turn his head towards the two boys crowded around Christie his warm kind smile broadening.

"Are those two young gentlemen friends of yours miss… ah how rude of me, buying a young lady a drink without knowing her name… miss?"

The auburn haired girl raised an eyebrow at the old man's overly enthusiastic and yet kind tone, "Christie… Argent" before continuing to dart a glance over at the leather clad Italian who was now pulling out napkin after napkin to brush the split coffee off his chest.

"Argent… hmm" the man smiled taking in the name with interest. "And your friends?"

"This really isn't necessary" Peter stated as he felt his sweat drop. 'This is ridiculous why is he buying us drinks?'

"Eh why not I am Mikey Corvis and can I get a Hot Chocolate with cream" Peter's friend said with a calm tone a big grin from under his shaggy brown hair before looking at Peter who was staring his mouth open slightly. "Come on Peter free drink."

Peter however could only take a step back from the giant cheerful figure with a beard to challenge Santa Claus, not sure what to make of the situation. His hesitation seemed to catch Gabriel's attention and his cheerful expression seemed to sour with his eyes narrowing as he looked Peter up and down: his concentrated expression seeming to indicate that he was looking for something, looking almost through him. It was an action eerily similar to Arthur from last night.

"Peter who" the man now asked as he straightened up his figure getting a little more rigid like a coiled spring?

The black haired boy however rubbed the back of his head and let out a nervous laugh: 'oh god is he onto me!'

"Talbot…" he blurted out suddenly before hastily adding "and I'll have a coffee… ground please."

At this the large old man relaxed proudly letting out a small chuckle as he declared what sounded like genuine approval before turning back to alice "fine name, you get that mam?"

The barista nodded walking back with two trays of drinks, one set for Peter and Mikey and the others placed in cardboard cups for takeaways. She was still glowering in the direction of Ernesto who was now leaning near the exit of the café looking at the rain outside.

Peter however couldn't help but ask "you like my name?"

"Oh course," roared Gabriel as he now walked towards the three teenagers the takeaways in hand and one arm holding what was obviously Christies drink. "There is a lot of power in a name… take yours for example it's a strong proud name, or this café for example: Half Moon, it evokes to me a sense mystery and mysticism good place for the unusual to happen," he said with a sense of awe as his wide grin suddenly seemed to be flashing a set of yellow aging teeth.

"Nothing really unusual happens here" Alice said rather bluntly from behind the counter, while Gabriel handed Christie her coffee "and now you have gotten your drinks I will kindly ask you and your 'friend' to leave" jabbing her thumb at Ernesto who glared back at her with equal distaste.

"Oh he is not my friend. But of course, and once again our apologies" Gabriel said bowing at Alice while holding his cardboard tray of three drinks at a perfect level. But as he turned to go and Ernesto walked out the door he stopped and turned to face Christie again, looking bettween her, her coat and then out the window. "You were leaving weren't you?"

"Erm yes?" Christie said raising her other eyebrow at this taking a step back as the man raised his umbrella high in the air.

"Here" Gabriel stated lowering his umbrella and hooking its curved handle over her arm before turning to go. "Oh and please tell your grandfather his friend Thatch is in town… he asked me to pass it on."

Christie however stared down at the Umbrella dumfounded, before turning to look between Alice, Peter and Mikey. "Who the hell was that guy."

Peter however was only looking at the shadowy back of the man as he faded into the rain outside. 'Why is my life so complicated?'

* * *

"What took you so long" muttered Lodivico as the pair of rain sodden men climbed into his car.

"Your brother decided to rough up one of the locals Mr Falco" Gabriel explained as he absently moved some of the assorted weaponry that lay haphazardly across the back seat. Indeed he gestured to the pile once he had gotten in, giving it a wary look "and I do say, aren't you worried about someone seeing this?"

The Italian shook his head as he keyed the engine to start, glancing disdainfully over at his brother who was now in the front seat. "That's what the black glass if for. And really Ernesto you had to go and pick a fight?"

Ernesto grunted as he passed his brother a coffee cup, asking a separate question to dodge the current topic, "any news?"

The taller Italian scratched his goatee absently and nodded, "yeah the scout reported the two are down by the train tracks, and have a little camp in the woods out that way. Should be fun" he stated taking a sip of his coffee.

"Excellent, no running for them this time, it will be like shooting fish in a barrel, or some American phrase like that" Ernesto laughed as he opened the glove compartment and pulled out a few grenade shells, which he began to count.

Gabriel snorted at this as he slicked back his fuzzy rain soaked hair and starred out the window, taking out his inhaler for a second before letting out another decompressing hiss as he breathed in. Although the torrential downpour made it hard to see, he was looking back in the direction of the Half Moon Café. Something about all that didn't sit well with him, especially the name Talbot.

"You okay Gabriel? Lodivico asked as he sipped his coffee one last time before pulling up the hand break.

Letting out a small cough as he felt the medicine run down his throat Gabriel chose to ignore Lodivico and simply gave out a rather curt order. "Stop the car Mr Falco, I will be staying behind" he stated, going for the car door once again. "I have an investigation to pursue."

"What again… this is what like the fifteenth time you've done this? Don't you want us to catch your kids or not?"

Gabriel however fixed Ernesto with a look of pure apathy as his hand rested on the car door handle. "As stimulating as it would be for me to watch you two fail at catching Arthur and Vivien for the twentieth time I legitimately have twenty better things to do… so… good luck."

"Then why do you keep us around" shouted Ernesto who turned to look at the back seat?

Gabriel shook his head, as he pushes open the car door with a clunk. "Because Mr. Thatch thinks you have some value… if it was up to me you ingrates would have never gotten in." he said with a pure venom that caused Ernesto to visible flinch before stepping out into the rain, producing a collapsible umbrella from inside his inside suit pocket. "Oh and Junior," he said sticking his bearded head back inside the car to glower at Ernesto, "no grenades, by some small miracle you catch my children I want them back in one piece."

As sports car's back door slammed shut, Ernesto turned to Ludovico and growled in Italian, _"I hate that gaffer."_

 _"Who cares, his days are numbered anyway"_ Ludovico replied as he restarted the car.

* * *

 **Authors notes**

Behold a update, and despite their being no combat in this chapter I feel it went rather well. I hope you enjoy it, I am a little unsure if I should have introduced Gabriel here but still it makes a good scene and feeds into the story.

Feedback is appreciated.


	6. Chapter 2 Part 2:More then meets the eye

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men: Chapter 2: Part 2: More then meets the eye**

* * *

The crunching of dried leaves underfoot made Arthur smile as he walked through the forest. Tall trees with thick smooth trunks lined the well-trodden path he strolled down, their branches forming a thick canopy of leaves far above his head. Beams of light shone through the gaps in the leaves shining down on the wide varieties of wildflowers, bluebells, daises and monkshood. He took it all in, as he steadily began a deep breath as he walked; the air was sweet, with a warm smell of honey from the buzzing of bees, while other insects, like butterflies and dragonflies went about their business. Letting out the deep breath the young boy looked up at the canopy of bright green leaves, a warm fluttering feeling in his chest brining a smile to his clean shaven face.

"Arthur" a voiced echoed through the trees dragging his attention to a glade off the beaten path.

Vivien sat there on a cloth, a small picnic basket arranged next to her, her happy smiling face and long well-groomed hair tied back in those ridiculous pony tails she always wore. She looked like her old self, happy smiling, and looking forward to a day out, waving frantically at her brother.

And next to her stood the man who raised him: Gabriel Amell, the aging white haired man just standing there behind his sister, a slice of pie resetting on a cardboard plate his fork poised over it with a content warm expression. Looking up the large man nodded at Arthur to join them before setting the pie down to pat the Vivien on her head causing her to giggle madly, pulling the ponytails over her eyes.

Arthur laughed and ran towards them, he hoped they had saved him some flapjacks, knowing Vivien couldn't keep her hands off them. But as he ran a root cutting across the path seemed to rise and arch out of the ground snagging the blonde boys foot causing him to fall face first into a patch of damp wet mud. He could hear them laughing merrily, and Arthur smiled in turn, he must have looked pretty stupid. Letting out a chuckle he pulled himself up and out of the moist soil and opened his eyes.

A flash of lightning cracked the sky, sodden rain falling around a wood filled with cracked and twisted trees, the droplets battering the aged and mangled woods. The howling wind had stripped the wood bare of its canopy of leaves and the sun was masked by thick and angry black clouds that roared with deep and hateful thunder.

Pulling himself out of the ground Arthur saw in his hand rested a long keen blade, his training sword he had been given when he was five. Its long slender blade extending about a foot and a half, its appearance burned itself into his mind, it being as familiar to him as his own face. Staring around madly in confusion and through the rain the boy tried to make sense of what was going on when he heard it, the soft animalistic growl.

Staring around a wolf clawed its way out of the shadows, its glowing yellow eye reflecting off its silver fur, its huge hulking and mattered form coiled to pounce at Arthur, rows upon rows of salivating teeth bared at him. It shape was as one with the shadows, as it prowled towards the young boy. Within Arthur though years of training kicked in. He fell into a crouch holding the blade level with the creature and as the monster pounced he stepped to the side and brought the blade up into the creature's belly. Piercing the darkened wood, the howl echoed for smiles as in pain the beast fell to the ground in a whimpering pile as hot red blood gushed from its chest, while it bounded back off into the darkness.

It was then Arthur felt it: that mad rush, that addicting feeling of power that had consumed him since the first day he had gone tracking: the thrill of the hunt!

Giving chase he jumped, dodged and weaved his way over and under the thickly packed branches of this new terrifying wood as he chased after the monster that had attacked him: the hunter now the hunted. He would lose sight of the beast for a second then see it again further ahead, but the trail of blood it left and the sodden paw marks it had etched into the soil made it more than easy to track. Still soon he saw a cliff loom in the distance and when he reached it he heard the frantic whimpering of the beast as it tried to scale the ledge to no avail. Arthur let a grin twitch his lip: there was a wolf right ahead of him, and now it was now trapped. He twirled his sword in his hand as he strode out of the forest and into view of the animal which now lay on the ground crying as it licked the long gashing wound over its stomach.

Slowly advancing on the creature Arthur felt his heart pound in his chest, the excitement intoxicating him as he now towered over his would be attacker: now his prey. Yet as he threw back his blade to bring down a hacking slash the whimpering of the creature turned away from him and with a flash of lightning the wolf was gone. In its place sat a naked girl with long silver hair looking up at him, tears dripping down her gentle slender face marked by ruined makeup dripped down with her tears of sadness. Her gentle and slender face.

'Her face' Arthur thought stepping back as the blade slipped from his grasp, hitting the ground with a clattering of silver on stone. 'H-how, she was dead… she… I'

"Arthur" she whispered, her soft lips parting as she shook her head at him, "why?"

Then she screamed, a high pitched shriek which seemed to echo continuously around the wood and within Arthur's own mind: as a red trimmed blade thrust through her abdomen, lifting her off the ground and raising her high into the sky. And yet even after her body went limp, that scream echoed inside his head causing Arthur to collapse to the floor beside his blade. The mad rush he felt was gone, and he could finally think clearly, he could hear his own thoughts, all the guilt and hatred he had felt, the sickness which lay within him, not them: and the deep feeling of sorrow which he now felt dripping down his cheeks alongside the rain as he cried. Hearing a splash Arthur peered up at a large armoured boot before then glancing up at a titanic man in white gold armour, the air around him shimmering with a dark shadow.

"Arthur, I am proud of what you have done" the lone figure said extending his hand to the young boy, the neat gauntlet clanking unnaturally as he held it out for his son. Indeed this was Gabriel.

"No" Arthur whispered, "no" he said again lounder, "No" he now yelled, "this isn't what I wanted!"

"No, it's what you are."

"NO!"

As he screamed the boy felt himself get pulled down into his fathers shadow, the inky of blackness rising up and wrapping around his wrists, dragging him down, sinking deeper and deeper, until it felt like he was drowning.

He felt a single tear flow down his cheek, his soft sorrowful mutter the only thing he could now hear.

'This isn't what I wanted.'

* * *

Arthur's eyes snap open as he jerks up. He felt the dull rain bounce off his sodden hoodie where he sat with his legs crossed. The thin trees around him swaying in the wind as the torrential downpour smattered against everything drowning out any and all sound of the wood around him.

Taking a deep breath he let his heart rate calm itself. "Only a dream" he muttered as he closed his eyes again.

Still as he felt himself drift off into the blackness of meditation the one thought prevailed persistently in his mind.

'Never again!'

* * *

The torrential downpour over Everett had shrouded the city in what could only be described as a grey mist of droplets as the gigantic storm cloud that had swept in from the pacific tore through the upper west coast. Still despite the fact that anyone who was out in it was soaked to the bone in less than five minutes it made the perfect cover. The Talbot packs large and powerful forms raced across the rooftops without so much as encountering a soul. The six werewolves found it especially easy to reach the train tracks and follow them to the train yard where the tracks curved slightly into a station to avoid the river. And as sure as Arthur had told Peter off to the side rested a thick line of trees, left undisturbed by the urbanisation of the city.

"I don't think anyone's around" Derek or rather Scar growled stepping onto his hind legs to look around, but finding it difficult to see more than a few feet even with his enhanced eyesight.

Mikey, or Scope, clambered onto the back of a nearby cargo container pausing as he to begin to search the surroundings for some answer. "So where is he?"

"Dunno" added Gothina who joined next to Scope taking another look around, "but my fur is soaked" she complained as she shook her head trying to shake as much water off herself as possible, only having it replaced a second later.

Peter, or Alpha, rushed forward and let himself skid to a halt, letting the ground under him give way leaving deep paw prints. "Yeah sorry Gothina, he said he would meet us here, maybe he is still coming after all this rain would be flue inducing nightmare for any regular person," he called with a slight chuckle.

Over the rain Peter could clearly hear Scar snort of disgust, but noted his friend chose not to not speak up again.

Continuing as if nothing happened the werewolf mused over the possibilities. "Well it's a big area to cover, maybe we should split up and look for him rather than wait for him." Ashley or Queen suggested, touching Scar on the shoulder who was still looking pretty upset with the whole situation.

Peter nodded in agreement, but before he could talk Maria, or Huntress, spoke up with authority catching him off guard. "I say teams of two, just in case it is a trap" she stated plainly, "Peter who do you want with whom" she asked briefly upholstering one of her various pistols to inspect its sights?

"Good call Huntress" Peter said firmly, trying to stop the butterflies he got whenever he was in command overwhelm him again "Scar you go with Scope…"

"No!"

Peter blinked a little taken aback by the firm reply, repeating the words Scar and Scope had uniformly said together. "No?" Taking a deep breath as he rubbed his head he mulled over what to do, "okay Scope you're with me, Queen you and Scar scout out upstream, while Huntress and Gothina go check out downstream by the woods." He paused letting his decision hang, fully expecting another round of objections from someone, but was pleasantly surprised when all five of them murmured in agreement.

"Good call" Queen said as she made her way past the group and back up the route they had come, Scar following her without a backwards look. While Huntress and Gothina had separated themselves in a smooth motion, with Gotina winking back at her boyfriend as they bounded off on all fours through the rain. "See you later" the purple and white werewolf teased.

Alpha and Scope both muttered their replies as they made their way carefully into the train yard, trying to spot anything out of place.

It didn't take long for both pairs to drop out of sight through the torrential rain, and it took even less time for the wet footfalls they made to merge into the indecipherable mess that was the sounds that their enhanced senses could pick up. Indeed it made it somewhat hard for them to even spot anything out of place as their vision was cut back to only a few dozen meters, and with each droplet of water banging off the dirty gravel, stored metal trains and hard concrete neither one of them could make out much more than one rather grumpy repairman in a raincoat fixing the underside of one of the yards.

Scope however was at east spotting tell-tale signs of life, with his keen perception, but even he was admitting the hopelessness of the situation. "This is only going to get harder, it will be getting dark soon and while we both can see alright under normal circumstances I don't think its going to help with all this rain." The brown shaggy haired werewolf leapt up to Peter on one of the parked train cars closer to the river, looking back over the area they had just searched. He pointed up at the sky, his snout twitching into a sly grin.

Peter smiled and murmured in agreement "I am not sure where he could be, do you see any short white hoods?"

Peter saw his friend smirk, shrugging at him as he looked back towards the area near the river where they had parted ways. "They could have," he began, chewing his words "or they…" he stopped and leaned forward. His wolf like features had begun to move slowly, his eyes, nose and even pointed ears lined up and dragging itself slowly to the right, as if it were following something.

"You see him" Peter asked eagerly, trying to spot what it was his friend could have seen.

"N-no, just" Scope shook his head as if he had just come out of a trance, and slowly clambered off the train cart and looked back up at his friend. "Did you see it" he asked, his own tone suggesting he wasn't sure himself, "like some huge shape moving through the rain, I could barely make it out, it was somewhere across the water."

Alpha looked again but shook his head: he could barely make out the edge of the nearby river, let alone the far bank. "No, I did not… what do you think it was."

"Well it certainly wasn't one of us, to big even for Derek," he muttered placing his hand in his mouth looking concerned.

"Scope are you okay?"

"It's just… it had yellow eyes."

The nearby sound of a puddle splashing dragged both of them back to reality and sent them instinctively diving for cover. Peter dropping down the other side of the train car, and Mikey pulling himself underneath: however they let out a sigh of relief seeing it was only Kylie.

"Guys she called… I know you're there, you need to come quick!"

* * *

The woods near the train yard were nothing special, just your traditional outcrop of old woodland that had been left alone in the wake of massive urban construction. The clearly marked footpaths were scattered here and there for ramblers to walk under the thick canopy of green leaves which seemed to shielded the wood from the worst of the storm. The thickly packed cover created a thin grey haze, rather then a blinding fog of the torrential downpour outside. But even then the dense underbrush of compact bushes and smaller trees that guarded the paths made it very hard for an ordinary human to move anywhere off the trodden path. Then again for a werewolf…

Huntress and Gothina ran across one of the paths and dived into the woodlands before stopping, they had not seen a hide or hair of anyone in the area. Indeed as Maria climbed up a tree, her claws digging into the bark for a grip she was amazed at the lack of any evidence of people. 'This isn't right.' As she peered around it almost seemed that every indication of any living thing had been removed, there should have been at least old footprints from ramblers from how well trodden the paths were, and on top of that there also should have been rubbish, lost items etcetera. As she jumped to the next tree her mind couldn't help but the wood was strangely deserted: footpaths like these near built up areas usually had at least some dedicated users, so it was strange by the lack of any human life. 'Accept maybe Gothina' but then again she smiled to herself inside her serious expression remaining unmoved, 'that doesn't count.'

"You see anything Huntress" the purple and white werewolf called up the tree as she ran back from the far side of the wood, giving a gigantic jump to pull herself onto Maria's.

Giving a kirk shake of the head Huntress leapt to the next tree branch and then let herself fall onto one of the paths, landing with a roll and seeing mud go everywhere. Still she didn't let that affect her, "I am going to check over here" and soon she was off running into the underbrush trying to find out why everything seemed so pristine, so untouched. Still as she heard the fading protests of Kylie she stopped turning back: 'maybe I shouldn't leave her alone, after all this could be a trap' the stray idea running through her head again, turning about and heading back. As she headed back though an out of place colour caught her eye: bright white against the woodland browns and greens.

"Gothina get over here!"

* * *

"So you going to talk about it?"

Scar growled, Queen had been like this ever since they had set off upstream and along the river. Her concerned expression, and the way she would glance at him when she thought the black werewolf wasn't looking sending off warning signals that this conversation was inevitable. And after all that time he had to prepare he had thought of his clear answer "no."

The blonde yellow werewolf blinked, she hated it when he got like this, Derek always tried to go it alone, yet he was bad at keeping things pent up, "you sure?"

"Look" Derek said snapping as he skidded to a halt pointing a long clawed finger at the blonde werewolf, "I told you no, so stop fishing Queen."

Ashley came to a stop directly in front of Derek looking up at the seven foot werewolf who glowered back. "Well you obviously find some part of this uncomfortable" she probed, trying to get him to open up so he didn't explode later.

Derek growled and turned away in his usual brooding manner "oh I don't know maybe the part where the most deadly monster hunter of the last century is somewhere here in Everett and his children just so happen to ask for 'our' help! You know the kind of people the Butcher hunts!"

Ashley nodded, she had to agree it did smell kind of fishy to her, after all it was either highly coincidental or as Derek put an obvious trap.

"And now Alpha expects us to walk right towards them and check that they are okay… doesn't he realise that is a sure fire way to get us killed."

Ashly sighed "that's just how Peter is" she stated, the logic of what Derek has said clashing with her own views of her old friend: "if people are in need he will not turn away if he can help, especially when they ask for it."

Derek huffed "well it doesn't make me feel any better," he muttered bitterly as he began to return to a jog "still we better keep searching, come on."

And as Queen saw Scar drop onto all fours to run she too felt herself begin to move, but yet she also began to feel torn. 'They are both right.'

* * *

"So… is he… you know?"

"I am not sure, I can't hear his heart," Maria stated in a serious but none the less controlled tone "I will check his pulse?"

Kylie had been caught a little off guard when she had Maria call out for her; still she had made her way towards the voice with all the speed she could muster, jumping over an ancient downed tree that lay across her route, and not even stopping when mud from a puddle splashed up, onto her uniform. But when she had arrived she was shocked to find Maria standing over a body slumped against a tree, at an intersection of three of the footpaths. The individual was small, dressed in a white loose hoodie and black joggers, which appeared to have been soaked through, down to the poor souls bone. And now Maria was rolling back the boy's sodden hood to get a better look at what was likely a 'body.' As the soaked hoodie fell away from the rather short persons head it revealed the rather a young boy, about their age, with a unusually strong jawline and thick neck, with high cheekbones and very shaggy dirty blonde hair. What was most odd though was the fair coloured stubble that coated his jaw and lips, showing the hint of a man's first beard. Altogether he looked quite rugged and tough and Gothina felt her cheeks go a little red at his shaggy appearance reminding her of Mikey. Huntress however was showing no such reaction, and instead was peering closely at the young boys face, the confusion of his situation made even more perplexing by his closed eyes and relaxed smile, creating a surprisingly peaceful expression.

"He fits Alpha's description" Huntress calmly stated as she rested her pawed fingers on his neck. Slowly her expression transitioned from her familiar cool and steady expression into a concerned glare: her eyes narrowing and ears drooping. "No pulse." The brown furred werewolf stated bluntly, as she slowly grasped his face turning it side to side, inspecting him for any sign of injury.

Letting out a gulp Gothina looked around the deserted wood again. Her eyes darted here and there, with her suddenly freezing at the sound of crunching twigs, but relaxed when all it turned out to be was some small wild life scurrying through the undergrowth. "Whoever did this could still be here" she said still a little on edge.

"No one is here Gothina," Maria's tone did not carry any scaving comments or undertones but its severe bluntness carried a clear message: 'Kylie grow up'

"But…"

"Look there is no one here except you, me and this…ack!"

In a split second Maria managed to catch the nearby movement from the boy in white bellow her, but felt herself gag as his left arm shot out and grabbed her by the throat forcing her painfully to jerk back. In instinct she felt her claws expand in her hand and cut into the young boys face, his red blood leaking out of the five neat puncture marks and drip down the still serene and peaceful face.

For a second neither one of them moved: Maria had gone tense her combat instincts causing her to pull her spare arm back into a striking palm waiting for him to attack so she could exploit an opening, allowing her to move in swiftly for the counter. However as time went by and she waited patiently she resisted the urge to gulp as the fingers around her throat flexed instinctively. Apart from that Arthur did not move, his eyes remaining closed and relaxed, with barely a sound coming from him, not even from his heart. For all intents and purposes he was asleep: indeed he seemed oblivious to the fact that his face remained firmly clasped in in Maria's claws.

"Huntress?" Gothina was now hovering over the two, with her hesitantly reaching out to the arm now firmly grasping Maria's throat. As she did this though, the lids of the boy slowly began to rise, and a second later he was now staring up at the two werewolves, his expression twisting into a charming smile. "Arthur Amell, a pleasure, is Alpha here?"

Huntress however took a deep breath and let herself relax "Gothina go find Alpha" she ordered, with Kylie quickly bounding off into the dark wood.

Ignoring this a surprised Arthur began to study up his arm which was still firmly clasped around Maria's neck. "Oh… my sincerest apologies," he said, as though it was the most casual thing in the world.

* * *

 **Authors notes**

* * *

Hey I finally posted... yay! I fooled around with some timing and placement of characters, please tell me how it flows?

Also how was the dream sequence.


	7. Chapter 2: Part 3: Unusual Acquaintances

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men: Chapter 2: Part 3: Unusual Acquaintances**

* * *

Sprinting into the woods did not take much time, Alpha and Scope had almost immediately dashed after Gothina after hearing about the sudden attack by Arthur. They were soon darting through the trees and bushes of the forest faster than they could imagine, linking up with Scar and Queen along the way. Kylie mentioned she had gotten first when the two had doubled back on seeing something. Within a minute of breaking the tree line Gothina was telling them it wasn't far when they burst through a bush and dropped into their preferred combat stances.

However what they spotted something was not exactly what they had expected to see.

"Yes, I did collect the rubbish," a standing Arthur said jostling a plastic bag by his side. He was facing away from the group, talking to the perfectly fine Huntress who was standing away from him with her arms crossed. The brown haired werewolf was towering over the rather short teenager and yet both of them seemed perfectly content with the situation: with the former.

"You got it all" she asked in her standard flat and controlled voice? Indeed it seemed as if the two were merely having a polite chat, with no indication of violence.

Kylie was the first to voice the group's confusion: "I… I, but he was…"

"I dislike rubbish, so I cleaned up what I could, I seriously doubt I got it all though" the English boy shrugged, before turning his attention to the werewolves. And it was then Peter saw it, the shallow claw marks across his otherwise handsome face: their bloody ripped flesh dripping down his white hoodie: and yet he didn't even seem phased by it. "Friends of yours," Arthur asked his bleeding face twitching up into a smile as he walked towards them. "Alpha it is good to see you, and Scar as well, a pleasure as always."

Alpha blinked as the English boy tilted his head and bowed at him. The werewolf desperately glanced at Scar for help, who simply frowned, forcing the black furred werewolf to glance at Maria/Huntress who gave her own shrug of indifference, as one of her eyebrows raised very so slightly. "Well it's good to see you too," Peter managed to finally say before he visibly recoiled at the sight of Arthur tilting his head back up. The gashes on his face were visibly tugging themselves back together and began to seal themselves back up. It was one thing to have a healing factor as a werewolf, but to see flesh reknit in front of your eyes was always a disturbing sensation.

"Arthur here was just telling me he has a healing factor" Maria explained taking a step up beside the boy, "said it's because he is a seventh son," her flatter tone breaking slightly to indicate both a question and her confusion as to what that was.

"Of a seventh son" added Arthur as if it was common knowledge nodding to the other wolves/.

Scar however didn't even give anyone a chance to respond and immediately growled at the hooded boy letting his claws extend a little "oh this is just all kinds of trash" he roared causing Peter to turn to him for answers.

"I am guessing this is something we should know?"

"He is a natural born monster hunter" said Scar in unison with Arthur who repeated him almost word for word: "I am a natural born monster hunter," although with considerably less aggression.

Scar immediately rounded on the boy taking a few steps towards him, "I knew this had to be a trap," he bellowed pointing one of his extended claws under Arthur's chin and forcing it up, "so come on where are the other hunters, you attack Huntress and then back off to wait for all of us to come running?"

Arthur deadpan expression, which was only marked by him blinking, seemed to indicate everything he then said, "wow, that is quite an active imagination you have." Scar however deep throaty growl caused Arthur's otherwise polite if confused smile to falter. "I am alone," he then said in a more serious, but still polite tone, "my sister is waiting for us at our tent."

"And you really expect us to trust you when you're a seventh son" the larger werewolf roared as he repressed the instinct to let his hand curl away from the blonde boys chin and slide down to his throat. "Do you know what your kind does to monsters!?"

Arthur let out a long sigh and nodded "indeed I do Scar, and I am sorry to withhold the truth until now, but…"

"Sorry," Scar said loudly cutting him off, "sorry, your kind are feared by ours because…"

"Scar that's enough," said Alpha firmly as he too took a step forward. While it seemed Arthur was more than willing to talk, Peter knew it was never a good idea to feed Derek's paranoia.

Queen though took a few steps forward until she was level with the black werewolf, her yellow eyes darted to Scar's and placed her paw on his arm and gently pulled it away. Scar's clawed hands balled into fists but he none the less stayed silent. "And you're telling us this why," the blonde werewolf asked? Always keeping her eyes on Scar who had stepped back, slowly beginning to pace up and down in front of Arthur, glaring at him while his whole body looked like a coiled spring.

Turning to face the blonde werewolf, Arthur's smile grew toothier and a little more charming, as all but one of the claw marks had faded from sight. "To exactly avoid this," he pointed at Scar who leered at him angry, "rather to make sure you do not feel betrayed or feel I was lying to you if such relevant facts were to come in polite conversation later." As he talked Peter could not help but be surprised at how calm ant even he his rather generous tone stayed, seemingly unaffected by the over aggravated werewolf who's glowing yellow eyes grew brighter as they gazed at him.

Still one thing struck nearly the whole pack, either this guy, this hunter, was the worst liar ever or he was genuinely being honest about what he was saying. While to Peter it did make a weird sort of sense to get the awkward things out of the way first, the fact he was telling them he was a hunter was another thing, but the fact he was some form of son who was born to hunt monsters was another. Still Peter could not help but think that this was likely the first and only person he had seen Derek get legitimately angry at and not run away screaming for help. For Scar however he could not but help feel his blood boil as he saw a person who had been trained to track and kill their kind stand only a few feet away; let alone the Butcher's own son. He knew if his or any of his family were around, they would be turning in their graves, or so he liked to think.

Gothina and Scope's meanwhile had expressions that highlighted the exact same thought, 'what the hell is going on.' And with Queen keeping an eye on Scar only Maria seemed un-phased by the whole situation: as usual.

"This is so weird" moaned Gothina silently as she scooted over to be closer to Scope, who began to rub her head.

The blonde haired boy chuckled, "indeed," before turning his back on the pack, pulling up his hood and moving towards a nearby bush chatting in his usual calm tone, but with added idleness as he talked. "Our camp is this way. I have put the kettle on," he explained pulling the bracken back as he smiled up at the much taller werewolves, using his free arm to highlight a sizable gap under the undergrowth.

Queen glanced at Alpha and the blonde werewolf moved slowly towards the tiny hole crawling through. Gothina followed soon after and then did Scope and so did Maria, who grabbed Arthur's plastic bag and handed it to him. Scar however made a sharp movement for Arthur and grabbed the arm that was holding back the bush.

"You try anything and…" However Scar didn't even have a chance to finish as in one smooth movement Arthur's baggy clothes slid out of Scar's grip and the five foot teenager was now staring up into the burning yellow eyes of the seven foot werewolf. His smile did not falter but there was now a coldness in his green eyes.

"Please" was all he said as if it was a request, before he moved the bush back for Scar.

Alpha however had walked up behind Derek and placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassured nod. "Go on." And as Derek crawled on his hands knees Peter nodded at Arthur for him to go first, a silent request Arthur was more than willing to comply with. 'I don't like this,' Peter thought as his mind went over everything that had just happened, 'but he seems nice at least.'

* * *

The small hole the pack had crawled through was not long, but as it passed through a thick layer of thick thorny plants they could not help but get a few scratches and marks on their uniforms. However once through they found themselves in a hidden glade and boy was it ugly. The ground was filled sodden brown mud without a hint of grass, no light could be seen through the overhead canopy and the thorny bushes that surrounded it were creeping in on all angles with their dense brown bark. And still the torrential rainstorm found a way to get through leaves above and still force them to be partially drenched.

Glancing around Scope easily spotted the faint mark of a purple coloured pop up tent nestled inside a rotted out tree. He immediately took a step towards it over a line of neatly arranged stone and just as instantly he stopped.

"Something wrong," the puzzled blonde werewolf asked as Scope bumped into her, pushing a strand of sodden hair out of the way of her muzzle?

Mikey however was looking rather agitated and tried to push his way past her and back to the entrance. "I am sorry." He managed to croak in an almost robotic fashion. "I need to get back to the school I have to develop some photos for the newspaper. If I don't…"

"What on earth are you worrying about that for," Queen demanded with a stern glare as she walked past him. "I mean we have more pressing…."

Ashley suddenly stopped her eyes going wide and her snout falling open. "Oh my god I forgot to tell Marco I was going out this evening! I have to get back to tell him."

Huntress and Gothina just stared at one another as the two wolves in front of them just suddenly started panicking, both trying to push past them to the exit. Kylie raised her arms up and forced Scope back, "are you okay, you sound like a text to speech tool" the purple werewolf asked staring up into her boyfriend's now glazed eyes. Maria simply grabbed Ashley's arm and hauled her back and stared at them in her usual disapproving glance: with a raised eyebrow.

As Queen and Scope tried again to force their way past, struggling in vain to get past the two werewolves, Alpha, Scar and Arthur finally emerged to see the bewildering sight. But even after Scope got free he was instantly blocked by the large black furred form of Scar who snarled out a demand.

"I assume you have good reason for wanting to go back?" He asked in his usual kirk manner, crossing his arms.

"Photos," remarked Mikey in a monotone voice.

"Marco," Queen replied flatly.

"Who the heck is Marco!" Barked Derek who instantly noticed their rather glazed expression, his tone changing instantly: "and what's wrong with you two?"

Arthur however who scampered out of the hole darted up to the two misty eyed werewolves and snapped his fingers. Instantly the two werewolves' blinked and rubbed their heads, looking around if they were unsure as to where they were.

The rather short teenager merely beamed up at the wolves as he kicked the line of stones near their feet, absently pointing at them as he passed through the gap he made. "Sorry about that. My sister put a few distraction wards down; they make you think about urgent stuff and the wat not."

Kylie's ears suddenly swivelled to face the boy and her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Wait wards, as in magic?"

Arthur nodded and the purple haired wolf girl clapped her hands utter joy, diving towards the broken line of stones like an over enthusiastic squirrel, almost glomping them in the process. "Wow so this is magic?" Kylie stated in awe, running a clawed finger down one of the stones and seeing a series of faint carvings cut into the pebbles.

Arthur nodded. "Yes it is. I could never get the hang of it myself I preferred to hit…" He trailed off as he stopped himself in mid-sentence and smiled. "I digress." And he turned around and headed towards the visible back of the nearby tent. "Let us proceed. Oh and please ignore any of those thoughts when you cross the threshold and my apologies in advance for any awkwardness that was created."

"Hey wait up" Queen yelled as she rushed after him jumping over the stones, only to be quickly followed by Scope.

Kylie however bounced one of the small pebbles in the palm of her hand and glanced at the rune with a wide toothy grin. "This is so cool." And as she crossed the threshold she held up the stone for Maria to see, who merely rolled her eyes with an amused smirk.

Still at the back Derek shot a glance at Alpha and growled. "If he pulls any stunts I am not going to give him a second chance."

"I think you already established that, still play nice" Alpha said shaking his head. 'Yep this was going to be one of those awkward evenings' he thought.

However as they caught up with the rest of the pack they could hear the clear posh accent of Arthur shout back to them. "Please hurry up or the tea will get cold." Queen had to turn to Peter with a wicked smile and whisper "He is so British" before they all ducked inside the tent.

* * *

The rain thudded dully against the sports car windscreen as inside the booming music of a death metal band blasted away causing the whole vehicle to vibrate on the dark and drenched street corner. As Ernesto banged his head back and forth to the illegible verses while playing air guitar in one hand and balancing a can of beer in the other, he bawled out the English lyrics in a deep and throaty Italian accent. Still as the song about darkness and no parents reached its climax the door opened and angrily and the long lanky form of Lodivico climbed in and with a refined flick of a finger one hand switched off the radio.

 _"Hey I was listening to that."_ Ernesto immediately reached over to the radio only for his brother to smack his hand away and then in one smooth motion seize his can and throw it out the still open door and into the torrential rain. " _Hey!"_ The Italian hunter shouted in his native language, half lunging after his beer can only to have a cup of coffee stuffed into his outstretched palm.

 _"No Ernesto, you are going to rot your liver if you keep this drinking up. What would mother say?"_ Lodivico asked in botha stern and calm fashion, his words having the same Italian dialect as his brother.

Ernesto sniffed the coffee and gaged in response to the smell, almost choking on the fumes. _"By God that is disgusting, where did you get this?"_

 _"The shop across the street"_ his brother replied as he pulled out his smart phone and began to scroll through it.

Ernesto glanced at the nearby car window and frowned, half contemplating throwing the coffee out into the darkness of the midnight storm. _"If we have to drink this crap why didn't we go back to that last shop?"_

Lodivico did not look up from his phone as he smacked his brother round the back of the head. _"Because you twat, you pissed off the cute piece of ass who owned the place when you threatened to kill that girl."_

Ernesto merely chuckled at that pulling a rather deranged smile as he reached onto the back seat and pulled out a massive handgun and loaded in a clip with a clearly marked 'S' drawn on it. _"Oh come on you have to admit that was pretty funny. And hey cute piece of ass huh, did you want to go in thi… ow."_ Lodivico didn't even wait for his brother to finish his sentence when his free hand snapped out to smack the smaller hunter round the back of the head for a second time.

 _"You are an idiot if you believe we can do that here in public."_

The younger strawberry haired hunter wrinkled his nose as he stared absently at the pistol he still had in his hand. _"Yeah_ _well not my fault the police here are so god dam stuck up!"_ Before he twirled the gun around in his fingers and fluidly placed it in a concealed holster in his leather jacket.

Lodivico sighed and drank his own coffee. He talked to his brother in a very calm and respectful tone as he checked and flagged his messages on his phone; still speaking in Italian. _"Ernesto I will ask again that you please control yourself. What would mother say if she could see us now?"_

However the sharp laugh of Ernesto contrasted his older brother's polite and articulated accent. He hit Lodvico playfully on the shoulder and snorted. _"She would probably yell at you for drilling a bullet into her brain, right after she would slap me for beating Dad to death!"_ And yet for some reason the mention of that made the otherwise expressionless taller thug smile for a split second before returning to his work.

Ernesto however was still madly grinning as he rubbed the back of his head from where his brother had hit him. Laying back in his seat he sipped the coffee with slight displeasure but still kept up his sadistically cold grin. _"Any word from our mutual friend,"_ he asked rolling down the windscreen and throwing the cup out, an action that caused Ludovico to look up from his phone and glower at his brother more.

 _"Yes actually, she has tracked the twins to a small camp somewhere near the train station, she just forwarded me the GPS coordinates."_

Ernesto eyes suddenly went misty as he leaned across the gearbox and up at his brother, _"and the wolves?"_

 _"And why would they be there?"_

Ernesto licked his lips and got close enough that Lodivico could hear his inaudible whisper _"they seemed mighty keen to protect those two last night… if I am not mistaken."_

Lodivico smirked for a second on hearing the almost aroused tone to Ernesto's voice. _"Ernesto while I know you want to kill something more interesting please keep some sense of reality intact while on the job. You and I both know packs rarely care for anyone beyond their immediate…"_ The hunter suddenly stopped as he stared down at his phone and pulled a face like curdled milk: a face that seemed to have Ernesto bobbing up and down madly in his seat like a school kid waiting for an ice-cream.

Talking slowly and with some clear distaste Ernesto managed to force out the sentence in slight discomfort. _"The Serf has spotted… several…. Werewolves… accompanying one of the brats back to their camp."_

Ernesto suddenly let out a whooping and terrific cheer as he almost jumped out his seat. He reached into the back of the car and rubbed a 12 gauge shotgun and a bandolier of shells grinning madly as he watched Ernesto start the car.

As the car started to roll down the silent night time city streets Lodivico glancing at his brother muttered under his breath, _"typical."_

* * *

The inside of the pop up tent was surprisingly spacious, but was still cluttered with the tell-tale signs of clutter from young people living on their own for the first time. Still even for a normal person you would still have to hunch over to move around, so it did not leave much headroom for the werewolves who were squeezing inside. However regardless of climbing over the three or so bags, moving past the portable electric cooker and moving past a blue gym bag, the tent was able to accommodate all of them. Ashley almost tripped over the kettle and Kylie found herself collapsing in a pile of crushed crisp packets, and when Maria sat on top of the old gym bag she stood almost immediately straight up before pulling the lid back and seeing a large handgun inside. Mikey ended up on Kylie's lap for a change, while Derek remained at the entrance. Peter however found himself sandwiched between Arthur and another hooded figure.

"You should not have come here" the figure said sternly as she crossed her arms not even looking up at the werewolf next to her.

Peter raised an eyebrow at the individual who was obviously Arthur's sister, Vivien, and apparently no one else had caught what she had said. But as he was about to ask what she meant why he felt a tug on his fur, and turned to find Arthur was offering him a small plastic cup filled with brown tea in it: the young blonde boy was grinning politely as he held it out.

"Milk? I am afraid we do not have any sugar" he said with his usual pleasantness.

"Um sure" Peter managed to say, accepting the cup once the boy had added the creamy white liquid. He could only stare on with an awkward smirk as he watched as Arthur going from werewolf to werewolf around asking each of the huge wolf human hybrid creatures how much milk they wanted.

However once the novelty wore off he turned back to face the figure on his right, who was simply staring at the floor with her arms crossed. Even without trying he could tell her heart was beating quite fast. It was hard to tell if she was she scared, or angry, it, so he smiled at her and whispered softly, "don't worry I don't bite."

Vivien's heart skipped a beat.

"Vivien do you want tea?"

The hooded girl turned her head and stared past Alpha to face her brother allowing the pack got a good look at the girl, and Peter and Mikey had to blink as they saw her. She was gorgeous, a little severe in her appearance but her long slender face held pronounced lips, framed by high yet soft cheekbones and bright green eyes that sparkled like gems stones, all the while strands of black hair fell around her face dancing in front of her eyes. Even so something sent warning signals off in Alpha's head, there was a coldness in those eyes that just screamed 'I hate you'. But at the moment the anger was directed at her brother, who as with Derek, seemed totally unoved over the obvious antagonism direct at him. Still peter couldn't help but feel that the anger she showed just seemed to make her all the more attractive.

Mikey couldn't help let out a whistle causing Kylie to poke him in the chest. Vivien however immediately reacted to the slight noise and her gaze was now turned on Mikey and Peter could feel the heat from her glare, Mikey and Kylie did to and shuffled away from her. 'This girl is intense,' Peter thought as he glanced at her, wondering if the angry beauty would look at him.

"Vivien" Arthur firmly repeated again, "tea" but his tone carried the unmistakable demand for her to stop?

Vivien complied and crossed her arms and looked back into the fire shrouding her seductive face in darkness. Her answer was calm and to the point, carrying an equally British tone. "No."

Arthur took a breath and smiled. "Excellent shall we begin. Now I trust that you have many questions? Please, fire away."

Scar was the first to speak up and was very clear on what he wanted to say, "why should we trust you?"

Arthur chuckled at this and sipped his own tea before answering. "You can't. But I am trying to do all I can to allay your fears."

"So you think telling us you're a Seventh Son is going to win our trust. Do you really think we are that dumb?"

Arthur sipped his tea again and pulled a sad face "I apologise then."

For a second Scar could only gag. "For what" he eventually demanded, growling once again.

"For failing to make you trust me. And through that making you uncomfortable."

Peter sweat dropped 'what is with this guy.' It seemed Mikey and Kylie were having the same reaction, however Ashely seemed quite enthralled by Arthur.

Derek however exploded "that's not what… okay, next question." He then said stopping himself. "why did you ask us to come here," the werewolf asked, calming himself down and resisting the urge to do something he would undoubtedly regret.

"You wanted to help, and I thought this would make as good a meeting place as any." This however caused Vivien to snort at her brother's remark.

"I guess you don't agree," Queen asked Vivien, tearing her topaz eyes away from the Arthur's face and meeting the dark haired girls green eyes from under her hood.

Vivien's answer was blunt and to the point. "No meddling with you dogs will only lead to trouble."

Instantly the howling of the wind outside became very loud as all the wolves turned their heads to face her. 'Did she seriously just call us what I thought she said' Queen thought as she tried to find her voice, a little taken aback by Arthur's sisters curtness. "Um… okay and another thing they said your father is Gabriel Amell… you said he was um… the Butcher."

"Maybe Gabriel's my father what's it to you bitch… oh sorry female dog."

Inside Queen's head there was a sound of glass breaking. 'W-w-what! Did she seriously…' was all she could hear running through her head as she looked back and forth between Arthur and Vivien. For a second all she felt they shared was good looks, as Arthur's rugged face turned to face his sister who now was now glowering at all the werewolves.

Arthur however reached over and yanked down hard on the two tassels attached to Vivien's hood, closing the noose around it to shut her up. "My apologise, my sister sometimes forgets her manners with guests," he tried to say as he smiled at his sister, even if his brow had fallen so far to turn it into what could be called a half glare. At this however Vivien visibly retreated back inside her hood, but Arthur turned back to Queen and nodded not even batting an eye. "And yes indeed he is our father; I assume this is part of the trust issue."

"No shit" Vivien blurted out jerking back up to glare at Arthur from across Peter's torso. She then stared up at the large werewolf and retreated back into her hood.

Peter blinked at this as she heard her heart speed up again for the third time, both when she had come in, and when she had looked up the first time, was it possible she was scared of them?

Ashley sweat dropped as she tried to navigate this confusing midfield of a conversation "that's part of it, I-I was just wondering why…"

"We are being hunted" Arthur and Vivien said in unison causing both of them to look at each other: Vivien obviously glaring at her brother.

"Um yes" Queen said in the kindest voice she could.

"W-we have… disagreements-" Arthur began, his own voice wavering as he talked "-with our fathers policy towards the supernatural… I." It was the first real time they had seen Arthur pull a face that was anything but a smile.

Vivien however was nowhere as tactful "That's an understatement. Gabriel's insane!"

"So you know he is a murdering psychopath" Scar stated with absolutely zero attempt to cover it up. It was seriously starting to get of Alpha's nerves.

Arthur took a deep breath and shook his head. "I will insist it is more complicated than that but…"

And with that Scar pounced, "so you're going to defend him?

"He is, I'm not," Vivien spat sardonically from under her hood.

Arthur nodded casually pulled a black bag across his crossed leg bouncing it merrily up and down. Peter instantly recognised it as the bag the boy had grabbed from his rucksack, and his mind went back to the school.

"So why were you at Shepard High" he quickly blurted out, trying to sound as friendly as possible?

Taken aback by the sudden change of conversation, and to Alpha's surprise Arthur merely coughed and looked away, Vivien however gave an amused snort as she turned to face the werewolf. "You were there Alpha. You tell us?"

Suddenly the whole pack tensed up, with the same thought spreading across their faces. There was no way that she knew Peter and Alpha were the same person: could she.

Peter was taken so by surprise himself it took him a moment to realise his mouth was slightly open, and forced it shut as he tried to stammer a response. "I think you have me confused for someone else," he tried to say but couldn't help but start to feel a little hot under the spandex.

Vivien shifted slightly to get a better look of Alpha, tilting her head up to look him directly in the eye with her bright green emeralds, and for the first time a real smile crept across the girls face. It was an unnerving smile that sent a shiver down the werewolf's spine, but yet at the same time he couldn't help but notice at how beautiful the girl was.

"Really Peter" she tutted turning away, pushing a lock on her raven hair back into her hood. "Also Kylie dear I still don't believe you're not that girl from earlier… oh sorry Gothina."

Peter felt his throat go tight and his own heart skip a beat, Kylie also let out a little squeak from across the room as she stared in horror from around the room. "H-how" Scar managed to ask just as dumfounded by the revelation as the rest of the pack.

The Caucasian girl almost lazily sat back pressing herself up against the wall of tent as she began to gloat. "Oh please 'Derek do you really think I am stupid, that I would allow Arthur to bring you here against my…"

"Vivien!"

Everyone suddenly looked at Arthur whose roaring voice had caught everyone flat footed. He was now glaring at his sister with an intense look that just seemed to ooze anger as his face was filled with a tight lipped rage. "Be polite," he then said immediately flipping from blood boiled range to a much calmer tone as his expression.

Vivien merely grunted as she let the shadow of her hood showed her face again, muttering the words "idiot" in a barely audible voice that only the werewolves could pick up.

"Excuse Vivien, she likes to show off."

"But how" Scar repeated aggressively as he got up as much as he could and tried to get up and take a step towards the twins. Only for Queen to grab his hand and pull him back down.

Vivien answered his question though by waving a large book at them that had been lying undisturbed next to her feet. The title read 'Shepard High year book' in gold letters. Vivien not waiting for an answer flipped the book open and licking the tip of her finger scrolled through the pages.

"Simple, werewolves wolf forms have noticeable characteristics that can be cross referenced with their human ones, " she began to say as she licked her thumb to turn the pages. "Hair colour with primary fur colour, bone structure, build, arm length, distance between the eyes, cup size…"

"Your kidding" Maria said raising an eyebrow, which caused Vivien to snort.

"No I am not. Still I am not sure who you are… never seen you before, shall we find out" the girl then sad with an almost ecstatic grin, trying to open the book before her brother snatched it away from her.

"Vivien I said stop showing off."

Queen spoke up next with a calm authoritarian voice, but that was still none the less calming "Okay, we get it your smart, now first off why were you at our school?"

"Well, um…"

"Queen"

"Well, Queeny…" Vivien began again.

"You do know your not easy to get on with," Queen flatly stated, cutting her off.

"Entirely intended," Vivien smirked, cocking an eyebrow at the blonde werewolf not even trying to hide her sarcasm. "Well we were looking for food, as we have been on the run for a while and we ran out of money. So we thought we might 'liberate' some from your cafeteria. As I understand your meal plan that week wasn't very popular."

Queen shook her head and shivered at the memory of the food. Still pressing on as she tired her next question "okay, now tell me you said your father is a Monster hunter does that make you ones too?"

"Yes" confirmed Arthur with a nod of the head.

Vivien smiled again and began causally mouthing off. "Yeah and we are so big and bad and scary, isn't that right… Derek? Nice scar by the way." She let out an arrogant laugh that for some reason sounded forced. But regardless it had the intended effect.

For a moment Peter gulped, peering across the anger stricken face of the great gigantic werewolf that glared down towards the smiling girl. Only the sound of the rain pattering of nylon covering of the tent broke the silence that radiated all around them. For that moment all eyes were on Scar who's left eye had begun to twitch. However he merely uttered a small curse and stormed out the tent, causing Vivien grin to take on a more sinister appearance.

As queen rushed after him both Arthur and Alpha rounded on Vivien and said in perfect sync chastised her. "What was that for" Peter growled his own temper creeping into his voice.

And Arthur saying "Vivien they are here to help."

Her nose wrinkled as looked sourly at her brother "Yes and you know full well what would hap…" she tried to yell before something got caught in caught in her throat and Angrily turned to Peter. "And if you don't like it the doors over there" she spat bitterly turning her gaze slowly between the four remaining wolves. "Now do yourself a favour and save yours… get out!" She began to say before catching herself again and yelling out at the top of her lungs.

She then ripped back her hood and pointed aggressively at the exit and to the sound of the rain beyond them. Yet as she stared wide eyed at all of them her expression grew gradually madder as they did not budge and merely stared back her in utter confusion. "If you stay here your goanna get hurt!" And slowly as the beating of her heart intensified, Peter realised what she was trying to do, it was strange, it was barmy but yet it made sense.

Slowly Peter found the words and reaches out to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We will deal with it when it comes," he said as calmly as he could, it was rather hard though after everything the rather sour girl had tried to do.

"You tried this last night" Kylie said softly to the raven haired girl who left eye began to twitch, "but please you have to realise we want to help."

Arthur licked his lips as he looked at his sister who had visibly recoiled from Peter touching her, looking at him like he was a leaper. However her enraged expression softened and her heavy breathing evened out. However slowly she fell back next to Peter holding her hand in her face. "Your all idiots," she said the venom in her voice sounding more potent than ever. None the less she slowly turned to Alpha and muttered, "Fine what do you want to know!"

And from then on the conversation progressed in a more or less civil fashion. The two twins were of course quite open with who they were and who their father was, even if Vivien kept up calling him Gabriel. As for who they were, as it turned out they didn't have much of a home growing up, and had lived on the move most of their lives going from place to place due to their fathers work. As it turned out though Gabriel had for years been using his status as a Doctor as a cover to look for and in Vivien's own words 'neutralise' any supernatural threat he could find. Arthur was especially blunt in confirming that he had killed children, and Vivien had been aggressively vocal of her disgust of her father's past actions. But what turned out to be the biggest head turner for the packs was the news of who his father worked for.

The Order of St. Arthur. Interestingly Arthur was very swift to shoot down any relation between himself and the organisation's name, but it was what the organisation was that unnerved the werewolves the most. An international organisation of monster hunters who's primary goal was not only the systematic extermination threats to humanity but also to do so while fighting them on an 'equal footing.' In other words to them a single human fighting a werewolf or vampire one on one was the greatest act a member could perform. And as they were keen to reiterate their father had taken down multiple packs and covens alone.

The Order apparently prided itself of only accepting the best, with the two men who had been chasing them last night, Ernesto and Lodivico, otherwise known as the Falco brothers, being two former hit men and special forces soldiers used by the Order as enforcers: working under the judicial and regulatory half of the organisation: the Inquisition. Arthur strangely snorted at the mention of the group but refused to comment further on it, staying unusually quiet when it was mentioned.

It didn't take the twins long to come clean on their opinions of the organisation. Apparently despite having been moulded towards becoming perfect hunters since birth, being fed propaganda their whole lives and being told time and time again the supernatural was evil, it didn't seem to have worked. Vivien was especially blunt that she never had any intention of fulfilling her role of a hunter from day one, and two years ago they had teamed up and taken a stand against their father. They had secretly undermined his hunting by informing his targets of his impending attacks before they happened, thus saving lives and keeping their father in the dark as to the truth. However it was due to the fact certain supernatural creatures had attacked them while doing this that they had 'done a runner' last night. Both twins were under the impression that their pack was one of the many other wolf packs they had upset while trying to save, and had come to Everett track them down. Vivien even noted some surprise that there were any wolves in Everett.

Peter naturally gave an awkward and nervous apology, but confidently joked they were here and were here to stay.

However as the twins continued their story they admitted they had underestimated their own organisation, as the Order figured out who had been undermining their fathers, their best agents, efforts. And their wrath was swift and brutal forcing them to go on the run with the two Falco brothers in hot pursuit since Texas.

"And that's where the police station was attacked," commented Scope as he put the last pieces of the events together. "I'll just say this, what the hell is wrong with those two?"

"I agree, they don't seem to be trying to take you back alive," Kylie added as she absently tried to shift her, and by extension Scopes, position within the cramped tent.

Confidently Vivien's smile changed its appearance becoming more amused than the condescending expression she had been carrying around for the last three minutes. "Yeah, well when you have been chasing someone for three months or so I am guessing that tempers are going to flare."

Maria however coolly interjected with her own analysis. "I saw the photos from the report of what they did in Texas," she explained as she weighed what the twins said. "That was more than just temper's flaring; they were doing a scorch earth policy." Slowly she sipped the last of her tea and handed it back to Arthur who smiled at her as she did so.

Still Arthur did nod in agreement as he bounced the black bag on his leg up and down. "An astute observation Huntress, but you must remember the Order is no standard fair hunting organisation, we… they pride themselves on secrecy as a key to their defence. So when we handed ourselves over to the police…" the blonde haired boy tried to say, before trailing off in embarrassment. Up until then Arthur had been talking fairly confidently, even with a clear note of pride or even aggravation, but yet suddenly his tone become hollow and cold. "I should have expected what they would do."

"Oh get over yourself," Vivien spat as she flicked some of her stray hair out of her face.

Yet Peter couldn't help but ask "what do you mean?"

Arthur signed again as he looked up at the ceiling of the tent and absently ran his hands along the buckled edges of the rugged black bag. "The Order values its secrecy as they were officially disbanded almost seventy years ago. If the governments of the world were to learn to what extent they still operate on it could spell doom for them. As such… I should have predicted what leaving would mean to those we met."

"Thank you numbskull" an exasperated Vivien roared almost laughing, as she stretched out a thin and well-manicured finger at Alpha "and you did it again."

"Oh what would you have done," he snapped turning to his sister with an equally aggravated tone? "Tried to annoy them into leaving? Because at least I am letting them know what they are getting themselves into!"

"Okay, okay" Alpha said loudly, raising his pawed hands at the twins sitting either side of him. "But seriously why should these hunters worry so much about you, your just teenagers?"

Arthur shifted next to Peter and pulled a face "well part of that has to do with the fact I am a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. I am the seventh male child of man who is the youngest of seven brothers, which due to the laws of magic and the natural world gifts me deep connection to nature. It's a pretty rare occurrence, even more so when modern medical gene therapy and artificial contraception interrupts the process." The blonde haired boy explained, letting out another heavy sigh as he did so before shifting slightly again away from Peter. "But due to my connection to nature I not only have these healing abilities, "he explained stating at the back of his hand, "but I also have sixth sense and nearly total immunity to most diseases, including Lycanthropy and similar conditions."

"So wait if I bite you, you wouldn't turn" Mikey asked quite surprised on hearing that?

"From you alone, no," he admitted looking at the floor slightly embarrassed. "I have my limits, believe me, but as of yet I rarely gotten into a situation which I need to push them. So I mostly just heal faster than ordinary people: a lot faster."

Vivien nodded in agreement. "And it's because of his immunity that people like my brother are considered natural born monster hunters. Even when they get into a fight with a supernatural creature they stand a well above average chance to walk out of it still human. And unlike anything Mr Scar face out there it's not just because they like to do it."

Vivien suddenly glowered at Mikey who was grinning like an idiot. "Oh come on who wouldn't want to be a werewolf, I mean look at me," he exclaimed raining his arm and flexing causing Vivien to glower at him. "Like what you see," he teased causing Kylie to poke him playfully in the ribs.

"You mentioned something about a sixth sense," the purple and white werewolf asked still giggling at Mikey?

Arthur again nodded in the same way he always did. "Well yes, but it's not especially useful."

"How is seeing ghosts not cool," Kylie blurted out with a grin wide toothy grin, her long fangs causing Vivien to reach her hand inside her hoody.

"Calm down Vivien. And you misunderstand… erm Gothina… Kylie?"

"Right now Gothina cutie" she said winking at Arthur who gave a small smirk and causing Mikey to look at Kylie in surprise. "What if you can flirt with girls I can to," she then added, flicking him in the head.

Still letting his leg fall silent Arthur grinned chuckled to himself, although awkwardly looking away. "Well Gothina, I don't see ghosts, however I do have the ability to sense people's emotions," he admits as he grins. "It's not especially useful in hunting as I cannot sense where, who and what the thoughts are behind it, but I get inklings to how people feel within my line of sight… if I so wish to anyway."

"Woah, and you think that is a lame power," the astonished Mikey chocked as he look at him with profound surprise, "I would just love to know what girls think!"

Arthur rolls his eyes and tried to speak "it's not mind reading, it's just what they feel at that…"

"Do me!"

"I am sorry what," Arthur asked a little surprised turning to look at Gothina, "I-um…" he said blushing.

"She means tell her what she is feeling," Vivien moaned letting herself have a quick face palm as her bother stared stupidly at the werewolf.

"Well, right now… you feel, amused I think… and excited, no intrigued, well something that merges those two emotions and also slightly… aroused. "

"I guess having her boyfriend on her lap didn't give that one away," Vivien snorted in amusement.

Gothina went so red that the mauve fur around her face went a deep dark purple. Mikey meanwhile sniggered and pointed at himself, "me next!"

Arthur rolled his shoulders as he leaned in to look at Scope seriously, "well you are now highly amused, you feel awkward… out of place and have deep insecurities-"

"Wait where are you getting that from, aren't you going to say I am aroused to," Scope asked almost indignantly, as he almost sat up in shock. "I mean where is this coming from…"

Arthur blinked and looked at him in surprise, "well that is what I felt, you have deep feelings on inadequacy, they are faint but I would guess you have been bullied before?"

"How did you?"

Arthur smiled knowingly, "I may not be as good at digging up facts as my dear sister is, but I am a very good interpreter," he admitted with a wide smile. "But if it makes you feel better I was about to get that you were aroused to… and had a deep connection to someone in the room."

Mikey grinned and glanced at Gothina behind him. Gothina however for some reason ignored him and suddenly cheered, almost sitting up and sending Scope flying as she waved a clawed finger madly at Maria, "ooooh, oooooh do Huntress next, Huntress," she cried almost yelling in joy and her hand swivelled madly in the direction of the stoned face expression of the packs resident ice queen.

Huntress however couldn't help but roll her eyes disapprovingly as the boy turned to look at her.

Wasting no time Arthur began with a smile. "Well Huntress here is finding this whole situation rather silly, I believe anyway…"

"Well that's no surprise," Scope chuckled as he tickled Gothina who giggled in unison to her boyfriend.

"No… that's not right," Arthur admitted suddenly, as he leaned closer to Huntress who once again raised one of her slender brown eyebrows at the boy. "She wants to think its silly, yet she has a longing to tell us something, but cares about us… no you… so she keeps quiet. No that's not right, she… hmmmm." As he talked though Huntress just stared at him as she tilted her head and let her eyes narrow as she glanced at him unsure as to what to make of what he was doing. As Arthur continued he went wide eyed and smiled, "she wants to join in, she desperately wants to be a part of the fun, but that's… oh," the English boy said as he looked at her, "but her parents would not app…"

"Enough," Maria roared as her second eyebrow shot up to meet the other on her forehead raising her hand so suddenly to silence Arthur's conversation that she sent a few stacked cans of beans flying.

"Woah that is so awesome," Mikey said in almost uncontrollable fits of laughter.

"Not really" sniffed Arthur as he bounced the black bag again on his leg looking at Huntress before closing his eyes and bowing his head.

Peter could only look on astonished at how quickly Arthur had performed his work, "you know that is actually sounds pretty cool."

"Not to burst your bubble, but the reason why we went on the run," grunted Vivien with a slight smile, even she could not help but be amused by Arthur's display of deduction.

Peter nodded in agreement. But still as he looked back at Arthur who was still bowing his head to Maria he couldn't help but smile. The black haired werewolf had to admit that when he had discovered that werewolves were more than the everyday campfire stories and movies made them out to be his world was quite shaken, if for the better. But now he got why Scar was so disturbed, those bedtimes stories or the reputation Scar said the supernatural had about Seventh sons were a bizarre reflection or parody of the same tales he had seen when human, and just like with werewolves with human perceptions, the super naturals of seventh sons was wildly coloured.

Just then Vivien lips moved as she muttered something without making any noise. "Huh what was that" Maria demanded suddenly as yellow eyes narrowed.

"And I said they are after me, because for my age I know a lot about magic." The black haired beauty flicked another strand of hair from her face as she talked. "They sank a lot of resources into us, so us doing a runner with all their secrets is a potentially damaging situation they want to avoid!"

"How much" Huntress queried, trying to recover the sense of control she ad, had before she nearly jumped out of her own fur?

"Ten million, each!"

The wolves felt their mouths drop open, we'll all of them except Maria. That was a lot money to throw behind just two people, but despite the sly grin Vivien was showing Arthur still seemed somewhat un-phased.

"They also want back a few of our belongings," the blonde haired boy said matter of factly, adding to the pile grievances for why the Order was after them.

"What belongings?"

Vivien bit her lip and looked up in the air: "well when we were a part of the Order we had access to a few useful tools to help us with our work."

"You mean hunting," Alpha asked forcing Arthur to nod and a frown.

"And you nicked them" Scope stated raising an eyebrow, in a near perfect imitation of Maria.

"I will state all the things we have, were given to us by our father" Arthur retorted so bluntly that Scope didn't even get a chance to respond. "And I will also state that we do have rightful ownership down to the last rune round. It just those jerks want to steal them!"

"Wait I am slightly confused" Kylie asked looking rather confused at the two of them. "These guys, Ernesto and Lodivico, are just after what a few bullets?"

"It's more complicated than that" said Arthur, Vivien and Scope said in unison, earning the mauve and white werewolf a dark glare from the girl and an amused chortle from both Arthur.

"Suffice to say that if they got their hands on a few of the things we have," Arthur added, still chortling from the joke, "it would cause trouble for quite a few innocent…" he paused mulling over the words again, "people to be hurt."

Peter gravely rested his snout on in his hands as he worked out what was happening, "and by people you mean the supernatural".

"So why did you do it" Scope asked seriously, "I mean turn on the order?"

Vivien rather annoyed expression gave way again to her confident smirk. "Would you believe common human decency," she asked with only a hint of sarcasm?

But Arthur very bluntly and proudly claimed "it was out father. He taught us well and raised us to be good people, not just killers," he claimed with almost zero tact for his sister, who was now glaring at him angrily.

'Seriously' Peter thought as he was caught in the middle of the staring crossfire for what felt like the fifth time, 'it's like I am sandwiched between Soviet Russia and U.S.A.' But suddenly something hit him, and raising his pawed hands between the two humans his brain went into overdrive. "Wait, you keep mentioning the Falco brother during the chase, yet it's only now you really mentioned your father?"

Arthur scratched his head as she tried to figure out what he meant "well we mentioned him earlier?"

Turning now to the rather bewildered blonde haired boy, the black furred werewolf continued his rant. "No, what I mean is in the terms of you being chase you two… well you Arthur have been saying is that it was what your father taught you that made you turn against him. Am I right?" Arthur nodded in agreement, and Scar grimaced. "And as far as you know it's only been the Falco brothers who have been after you?"

Arthur nodded again, more sternly this time as he lowered his brow and forced his own brain to work overtime. Vivien too was looking at Peter as if he was just rambling on about nothing, "I am not sure where you're going but, go one wolf boy?"

Ignoring the comment Alpha broke the news, "me and Scope saw Gabriel earlier today in town when we were in human form." The sound of thunder rocked the room and the pattering of the rain became a deafening din from outside. "And the Falco brothers were with him!"

"That's…"

"not…"

"like…

"him-m" the two twins said alternating between one another almost stammering out the last few syllables.

"He hates them… he hates the inquisition" Vivien managed to wheeze out as he stared wide eyed at the werewolf, the look of disbelief all across her face.

But what took Alpha completely by surprise was the sudden tug on his arm as Arthur grabbed his fur and almost thrust his face into Peter's snout. There was a mad glean in his eyes, but an expression of such panic that the soft tender voice he spoke with could not be with any other intention than concern and care.

"P-please… t-t-tell me… how did he look, was he okay, he wasn't coughing was… please tell me he wasn't coughing?"

Scope cut in almost immediately, drawing the almost crazed looking Arthur away from Alpha and returning some sense into his eyes. "He looked okay to me, I mean he has a breathalyser, and he almost beat up Ernesto when he took a swipe at one of our friends, but yeah he looked okay," the brown haired werewolf explained in a caring tone: a tone that seemed to cause Arthur to relax as he slid back onto his patch of the tents floor.

He nervously picked up the long back bag and placed in back on his knee where he continued to bob it up and down more vigorously. "I-I am sorry" he tried to say with clear nerves, "I-I am just surprised… this is just so unexpected for my father…"

"Does he really hate those two that much" Maria asked with unusual concern?

Arthur once again nodded, his calm expression returning, although his smile nowhere to be seen "Yes he does... them, their boss, the whole inquisition, they are a corrupt bunch, even by the order's standards… just…" he pauses and pulls out a small handkerchief and wipes away two tears from his eyes.

"My father is dying!"

Suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of tearing cloth and five long talons bore through the tent flap. All eight of the occupants were on their feet in a second, Alpha dropping onto all fours to pounce, Maria drawing her two pistols, Vivien pulling a gin from somewhere and Kylie and Scope raising their hands to rush whoever came through. However in that split second the flap was torn away the group only saw the hulking brown form of something far larger than any werewolf the two had ever seen rise up and then come crashing down onto the roof of the tent.

Immediately everything went black as the group tried to pull the polystyrene coverings walls off. And then something warm splattered over them all, followed by an intense scream. And as Kylie rubbed the red stuff between her hands in the darkness she couldn't help realise that it smelled of blood. And through all the noise of the rain and the storm that now seemed to pound on them from above one noise could be heard. It was a screaming, or rather yells of anguish that was unmistakably from Arthur.


	8. Chapter 2 Part 4: Beasts

**Full Moon High: Of Monsters and Men: Chapter 2: Part 4: Beasts**

* * *

Untangling themselves from their sudden mess, Peter tore the fabric apart with a wave of his clawed hands and rose out of the debris of the tent, ready to strike. A loud bang to his right caught him off guard as he jumped back into the sodden mud the roaring rain making it hard to tell the direction of the shot. Looking around he saw Mikey now hunched over clutching his gut Kylie diving to him as the shadow of a man charged at him from out of the storm. In less the a second on registering it he saw the flash of the muzzle pointed at him and then the click and loud pounding noise as the shotgun hit the pin, the whole world just slowing down for the werewolf. He attempted to jump back but found his vision obscured by a black smoke as two arms reached around him and he felt himself be pulled back into the darkness.

And the next thing he knew he was falling.

Hitting ground with a loud squelch the werewolf looked up at both the sodden canopy of leaves, and the black haired hunter Vivien who was now looking at him coldly.

"Get Arthur," she ordered firmly as she rolled off him and into the mud, running off before disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

Now as for Peter, he was really quite confused. In the span of what had felt like twelve seconds he had been knocked flat, seen his best friend get shot in the gut and almost been hit by a shotgun only to wind up… 'Actually where am I' he wondered now looking around at the low shrub he had landed in?

A split second later he heard a sudden whoosh noise and Vivien suddenly reappeared in the same puff of black smoke holding both Gothina and a wounded Scope under her arms beside him. The black haired girl collapsed to her knees taking a deep breath, as Alpha instantly dived for his friend seeing red blood pour from his gut and a strange silver liquid that was causing smoke to rise up wherever it hit his skin.

"Gah, these are worse than buckshot," the brown werewolf yelled angrily wiping his wound with his hand only for it to start to smoke from the silver paste.

Peter had already leaned down next to Scope who was how huffing in pain as he tried to breathe but found it increasingly hard as the brown wolves stomach seemed to boiling away. He was surprised when he saw Vivien lean and tug at her left sleeve grumbling "god dam it… why does this… You!" She suddenly barked looking at Gothina, "Get this off and use it to clean the quicksilver before it gets to his organs, he should be fine after that!" She then rounded on Alpha who in truth was still slightly dazed from where and what was happening. "I said help Arthur," she ordered again glaring at him before repeating herself and providing some direction as she pointed back into the woods as Vivien stripped her other arms sleeve. "Move it!"

Alpha nodded as he stood up and charged off. He had to admit it was suddenly strange seeing the girl who had been bad mouthing them earlier suddenly seem so keen on helping them, slowly figuring out that Vivien must have teleported him out of the way. Still as he now broke into a run on all fours and headed back in the direction Vivien had been pointing in he could hear the sounds of gunshots and caught the unmistakable sign of Huntress jumping from tree to tree as what looking like automatic weapon fire shattered each branch she landed on after she had jumped clear. The brown female wolf fired off a few rounds into the rain and soon jumped behind a trunk near Alpha and called to him.

"Get down."

Pressing his body against another tree Alpha saw a wave of automatic fire spray the area they were he had just been standing, as the edges of the trees splintered from the rounds and a silver substance trickled down the bark. Huntress herself fired two blind shots back soon after but ducked away as a powerful single shot punched right through her tree causing her to hit ground behind some earth.

"They have us pinned," Maria grumbled staying low as she could, reloading her pistols and looking at Alpha for instructions.

Alpha took a quick peek out to get a look at was going on, and managed to steal a momentary glance at the same short, strawberry blonde Italian the group had encountered earlier. Well before the man fired a hefty blast from a shotgun he was holding in one hand, while he balanced an Uzi in the other. Ernesto, he think the twins had called him, was grinning like a idiot with a dreadful stare just like the first night he had seen him.

"He is looking as cheerful as ever," Alpha commented as he looked around the other side of the tree only to be met by sniper fire which missed his muzzle by a few inches. Defiantly Lodivico. Looking back at Maria he could tell his joke had not gone over well with the scowling werewolf.

"What the heck is going on," an angry disgruntled roar came from behind them.

"Hello to you too Scar," Alpha said cockily as the black werewolf joined him by the tree hugging it as he tried to make a sense of the situation.

Queen had also joined them as well taking the high ground and hiding in the branches as she surveyed the situation and calling down. "I can only see one of them;" she exclaimed through the stormy weather. "I think I can stun him."

Derek grumbled his expected comment, "Good we can use that for cover and get out of here," as he nodded at Alpha who was about to speak before he felt a tug on his shoulder.

"Oh no you don't," came the hash tone of Vivien who was now glowering at both of them as black smoke faded away around her and water turned her decorative pigtails into clumped handfuls of drenched black fibres. "My brother is…"

"Nuts to your brother and f…"

Another round of automatic fire cut the black and grey werewolf as Ernesto covered their position in silver bullets, forcing them all to duck

"Scar," Peter growled now turning to glower at him his eyes flashing a slight red as he looked at all of them, "we are not leaving him!" Alpha took a second to compose himself finding his sudden surge of command strange and frightening before nodding at Ashley to take the shot, a plan forming in the back of his head.

As soon as he had given the nod Ashley had raised her arm and let loose a bolt of blue lightning that to the hunter bellow simply flew out of the darkness and trees and landed straight into his chest forcing him to skid backwards, back but not fall down. Alpha then gave the order to charge as a sniper round flew inaccurately towards Ashley who jumped out of her tree and onto the ground joining the wolves and Vivien charging down on Ernesto.

"Scar take him," Alpha ordered almost instinctively running past the bleary eyed hunter who was raising his shotgun to shoot at one of the wolves only for him to be now knocked off his feet by the clawed fist of Derek which connected neatly with his jawline.

Alpha and the rest of his group ow rushed through the trees leaving Derek to deal with the thug, and after only two seconds they ran into the old camp of the twins: looking like a bomb zone. They all had a moment to take in the turned over tent and shattered plates, cups and massive tracks leading away from the site before the familiar boon of a sniper round suddenly echoed through the rain torn wood and Alpha felt something tear into his shoulder.

Falling into the mud and clutching the small graze, he felt the familiar burning sensation of silver and had to bite his tongue or else let out another raw of pain. Queen was very swift in picking Alpha up and moving him towards a tree, although the black werewolf waved his friend off as he broke back into a run following the tracks from the camp: it was only a light graze.

"I am fine." But as another sniper round slammed into the dirt by his foot and they all broke into another run after the tracks of Arthurs attacker. Keeping note of everyone with him, Alpha could see Vivien was bringing up the rear with two bags she had managed to quickly grab from the camp; a kit bag and the long thin bag that Arthur had been fiddling with earlier. Ashley had landed beside him and was on all fours keeping pace with him, as he too dropped into an all four sprint. Maria meanwhile was up ahead, blasting away into the darkness and rain, her shots tracing the muzzle flash of the sniper who was tailing them, giving them some covering fire as the sniper slowed his attacks. Still they were all now running through the woods, trying desperately to stay out of the snipers range, and as such they all agreed with Maria's sentiment.

"We need to take that guy out," she barked firing four rounds off into the darkness, forcing the latest sniper round to fly wide past their heads

Ashley however knew full well the hard truth, "he would hit us before we even got there," she called out running on all fours as another round hit near them.

"To bad he keeps changing position," Vivien wheezed as she tried to keep pace with the werewolves, teleporting every few seconds. Taking note of how the muzzle flash was rarely in the same place for more than two sots.

Alpha however was hit by a sudden flash of inspiration as he saw Vivien teleport in front of him to simply keep up with the enhanced werewolf speed: a round just missing where she had been. "Vivien, can you see the sniper?"

Vivien almost stumbled at the question looking over her shoulder as she jumped over a bush, her voice as incredulous as ever: "so what if I can?"

"Teleport yourself and Queen to him and take him out!"

Vivien looked for a second as though she was about to answer as she desperately moved her legs in a vain attempt to keep pace with Peter who was getting in front again. She simply then threw to him the long thin bag she had been carrying and shouted, "give that to Arthur." And in a puff of smoke she disappeared mid step and landed just above Queen who managed to spot her for just a few seconds before she disappeared along with the girl in her own puff of smoke.

"Good plan," Huntress commented flatly as they both skidded through the mud, their enhanced sense easily seeing how the tracks swerved away towards the edge of the woods.

Peter was about to ask Maria if she thought the others would be all right, but he stopped himself knowing two things. The only reply Huntress would give would be an indirect grunt or comment and he knew deep down they would be… or at least he hoped they would.

* * *

Derek easily dodged the closed fist of Ernesto who then swung at him with a silver knife, slashing away at open air as the werewolf just stepped back easily predicting the mans uncontrolled blows. It really was quite pathetic seeing the human trying to land a hit on him, as he knew the person couldn't seriously keep up. Still grabbing Ernesto arm he squeezed it hard trying to force him to drop the weapon only to hear Ernesto laugh and somehow, slowly but surely push back against his grapple.

"Nice try doggy," he laughed, almost giggling as he bent Scar's own arm slowly away from his chest and inwards, trying to force the knife slowly towards Scars chest.

It was not really hard for Scar to put a little more effort into his grip and twist the knife away from him, but he was caught completely off guard when Ernesto used this small twist to gain momentum and spin his whole body upside down delivering a kick to the wolfs muzzle. This was all it took for Ernesto to get out of the lock and scramble through the mud for his shotgun. Spinning and flailing through the mud he let out another laugh as he fired a blast at Derek who with lightning reflexes only felt two of the pellets graze his arm and chest as he dived free, ignoring the slight burning sensation from their light cuts. Derek naturally snatched the barrel of the gun and tore it from the Italian's grasp who was still looking up at Derek with the same disgusting grin.

"Nice moves," the Italian muttered in his thick accent, trying to pass it off as a compliment as he tried to crawl away slowly on his back, but you could hear the oil and malice in his words as he just looked up at the wolf grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Derek however was, as usual, having none of it. Slowly advancing on Ernesto, all the anger he had been keeping down all day finally began to bubble over, his eyes beginning glow with a sinister intensity as he placed his balled fist into his open palm. "Tell me hunter, do you enjoy hunting werewolves?" Derek felt his claws extend slightly further as he placed hi clawed feet on the man's chest and forced him down into the mud with sloppy squish.

"Does that include hunting in general or just your kind… gah?"

Derek forced the balls of his feet down further on the hunter, slowly loosening his own neck and opening and closing his fists. It was people like this that killed his mother, people like this that had killed his whole family, and now he had one in his grasp. Time for some 'therapy.'

Reaching back with his claws to deliver the killing blow an image came to his mind of not Ashley, the disapproving face mouthing the words "don't do it," to him over and over. And soon he was seeing Peter, Maria… even Mikey and Kylie. 'Okay seriously, them!'

Lowering his arm he spat in Ernesto's face pressed his foot down again to cause at least some pain. "Just so you know we are not monsters," the werewolf said in a serious and angry tone, his better judgment forcing back the rage within his heart. Maybe Peter's way could work.

For a second neither of the two spoke and only the rain could he heard as it splashed all around them. Even Ernesto's grin was gone as he looked right into the human eyes of Derek and Derek back into his.

"I understand," Ernesto said in a flat but understanding tone his eyes almost glazing over, "you're not monsters," he now said trying to sit up under Derek's foot: which the werewolf allowed. Suddenly though the human fist flew into the air and mud splashed across Scars eyes blinding him for that second Ernesto needed to grab his foot and sink his teeth deeply into the wolves shin.

Howling in pain Derek stumbled back as Ernesto dragged himself to his feet the familiar mad grin returning as he stared wide eyed at his opposite number blood dripping down from his very silver coloured teeth. Deliberately he reached inside his leather jacket as he spoke the same words again. "No you're not monsters…" Slowly Ernesto withdrew two beer bottles and repeated the words again and the now crouched Scar who was getting ready to pounce. Yet, as Ernesto tore off both bottles corks with his metal teeth and chugged them down with one hand his other one snaked into his pocket.

"If you know we're not monsters, then why do this," Scar roared his fists clenching again as he got ready to charge? 'Dam psycho'

"Because I am!" Ernesto suddenly threw the two bottles at Derek where they smashed on contact with his arm drenching his fur and uniform in a foul smelling liquor and glass.

Now charging Scar raised his claw as the rage overtook his senses and slashed down missing Ernesto who jumped back as planned pulling from his outer pocket a small metal lighter.

"Toasty," he proclaimed monster called in a high pitched voice flicking the lighter at Derek and letting the flames hit him and the liquid on his the chest, instantly lighting him on fire.

Derek immediately began to swat away at the flames as he backed up from Ernesto who was simply grinning at the werewolf with a sadistic grin as his prey slowly began to burn.

"Fatality," he chuckled as he watched Derek burn.

* * *

It hadn't taken Huntress or Alpha long to follow the tracks. The person, or rather creature that had grabbed Arthur had not entirely bee all that subtle in its attack and had torn through the forest with the same intensity as it had the camp, especially how it had torn a hole straight through the brambles. Despite the destruction they soon picked up Arthur scent of silver and followed it into a glade where they found Arthur: or rather what left of him pressed up against a tree.

He had been torn into by what looked like a industrial saw, his hoodie, shirt and flesh had been torn open and long claw marks and deep incisions from bites could be made out all over his body as blood poured out of him mingling with the rain and the mud bellow him: staining his white clothing red. If it wasn't for his dazed expression as he tried to breath and the fact he was still on his feet ,the two werewolves would have written him off as dead without a second thought.

Still they had to rethink that concept as what looked like a large rock flew at him, destroying the tree, and only giving the wounded boy just enough time to jump to safety.

"Had enough," came a deep yet feminine voice with a distinctly Russian accent, "had enough hunter?"

Out of the shadows came a massive figure, dwarfing some of the trees with her colossal height. Peter had initially thought the beauty trio wolf forms as being similar to amazons, and in turn for a girl being insanely tall and covered with deep valleys of muscle. This 'woman' laid them to shame: she was clearly a were creature with her deep black fur over her body, but her frame had her standing at almost nine feet in height and her womanly figure was topped off with very clear muscles and a six pack that was so defined, even under the fir, seemed to have been carven from granite. Still it was clear she wasn't a wolf, as her snout and pointed ears were to short and rounded, while her nose to broad and flat. Her hair also hung more loosely from her arms and legs giving her a shaggy more puffed up look, and her canines were much larger than theirs. It almost made her look like a bear: a werebear. However what caught Peter most off guard was that around her neck sat a very obvious metal collar.

Still both knew they had to act fast as whoever this woman was she had just snatched Arthur by his torso and was lifting him off the ground, repeating herself as she gloated at him. "Had enough, boy? You know you should feel honoured. Your dad didn't even give my pups a chance like I am with you!" She squeezed her enomas shovel like ands and laughed as the boy struggled against her.

Alpha instantly knew what to do. "Hey, Bear! Goldilocks called; she said she was wondering why you grabbed a guy instead of her? Unless you're into guys..." Peter quipped leaping out of the shadows, Maria training her guns on the hulking figure who physically dwarfed the pair of them.

However the giant were creature was actually stunned to see them, Peter's joke just flattening her mentally as she tried to first work out what he had just said, and secondly why two werewolves where there. And in that split second she forgot about Arthur long enough for him to work one of his now torn right arms free.

"Werewolves," she asked herself in shock, but let a knowing smile cross her small muzzle. "I thought I saw you… yes saw you helping this little…" She paused for a moment glowing yellow her eyes narrowing as she glared at them, "monster here last night." She shook Arthur a little as if to ring home her displeasure for the boy.

Arthur let out a small grunt as the giant woman closed her paw around him causing an audible crunch as something broke.

"Maybe I did help him… still you seem quite at ease with the disastrous duo back there," Alpha then asked casually pointing over his shoulder with his thumb as he began to circle the were creature, looking for an opening.

"Obviously," the woman chuckled casually in her deep booming voice, using her free hand to scratch at the metal collar around her neck, "I am not happy with it, they offered me a deal. Namely revenge on that bastard who killed my kids, through his own children naturally," she announced her Russian accent curling into a dark whisper as she flexed her fingers around Arthur, who tried to speak untill the words were crushed out of him.

"Revenge," Peter asked solemnly stopping for a second as he tried to figure out a plan. "On a person who I assume you have never met before?" Turning to the hostage he poped the question as if it was an almost casual get together, "Arthur have you met this woman before?"

Arthur gave a pained grunt for a second, his eyes lingering on Peter and then down to the long thin bag that Peter was carrying. "N-no," he managed to wheeze out as his lungs were crushed. "I have n-neve… gah!"

"He is related, it's enough," the giant boomed with a smile ignoring Arthurs words as she squeezed her giant hang again around him again, as if to pop his head off. "And while I am not allowed to kill the butcher… they didn't tell me I had to bring his son back alive," she growled with a smile of dagger sized teeth. "Still," she began straightening up to her full height and nodding at the wolves with a respective bow, "I have nothing against you, so how about you run along and I forget I saw you?"

At this Alpha finally worked out a plan, as he saw Arthur now trying to use his free arm to open the giants fist some more. Catching Marias eye he nodded at her, and shoot the long thin bag towards Arthur and she nodded. Peter internally hopped his partner got what he meant.

"How about you let him go and we forget we saw you?"

"How about no," came the reply as the giant beast charged.

"Yeah, thought so. Huntress," Alpha called out throwing the bag at her which she caught in expert precision and then with pin point accuracy threw towards Arthur with the words. "Catch!"

Arthur instantly seized the bag and with one hand managed to draw the blade and raised it over his head sweeping the blade along the side of his captor's thumb grazing it and causing her to yelp in pain dropping the young man who dropped into a prone position breathing heavily.

"I am sorry," Arthur now exclaimed with a firm and determined voice, twirling the sword in his hand and finally resting over his back in a prone position: the brute rounded on him snarling. "Really I am… but I am not my father!"

* * *

Ashley fell onto all fours seeing a black mist fade from her eyes. Disorientated by the sudden change in scenery, she gingerly stood up and only then became aware of the girls arms around her neck. Rolling her eyes at Vivien's presence she knew she had a job to do and shook her body just enough to send Vivien backwards onto her bottom with a slight crunch.

"I can take it from here," she said with a confident authority as the wood of a nearby tree exploded from a sniper round causing her to dive for cover.

"Naturally," Vivien replied with an air of sarcasm as she reached inside her track bag and pulled out a pistol. "What," she cried reading Ashley's expression on seeing the gun, "your friend has two?"

Ashley was about to correct but held her tongue: the girl wasn't worth it despite what she has said. "Just stay down," she ordered firmly jumping out from her tree only to see a sniper round fly past her head nearly missing her as she used her speed to move forward to a nearby tree. She would have been hit by a second round if not for her suddenly being slammed in the back by the bulk of Vivien who puffed into existence just behind her, causing them to crash into a tangled mess in a bush.

"As cute as it is to see you play the hero blondie I am have no intention of staying put and watching you get your tail blown off."

Ashley stared up at the black haired girl and felt a small growl reach her lips: "W-well... thank you. But I would have recovered from being shot." The wolf girl claimed in a huff, "I recovered from being poisoned and having nearly all my bones crushed." Pulling Vivien aside as another sniper round cracked the air hitting the bush where they just where the two ducked behind a small ridge and tried to peer over it. But nothing happened, and there was no sign of him.

"Ever recovered from having liquid silver pumped into your internal organs?" Vivien reached over to the small hole the current sniper round had made and pulled back a thick gooey but silver substance covered in mud and small bits of metal.

Ashley mentally gagged at the thought remembering the nasty burning sensation of silver, "who the hell made that?"

Vivien opened her mouth but closed it and purely told the werewolf, "some hunter, two hundred years ago: fighting Wendigos." Still as she checked the three 'multi-coloured' rounds in her clip and then began to pour them out and rearrange them she asked absently, "what the heck tried to crush and poison you?"

"A man-snake."

"Un-huh… sounds weird," Vivien commented apathetically as she blew down the barrel of her gun and reloaded her clips multi-coloured bullets in a new order.

Queen however merely frowned at the girl, before letting off a small chuckle as she tried to peer over the top again, quickly ducking down before anything could hit her. "That's become the story of my life."

Vivien nodded as she slapped the clip back into the pistol and heaved herself up. "I had you pegged for a turn," before dropping into a crouch and nodding over the hill. "Okay now run out there and whatever happens do not look behind you."

Queen stared at her for a second opening her mouth staring down at the bratty girl to object, she had to know it was suicide, but for some reason Vivien had a look in her eye, a strange determined look in her eye. "Care to fill me in?"

Watching Ashley brace herself for a run Vivien muttered "too long, just…" she gulped for a second biting her own lip, "try not to get shot."

And with that Ashley was off jumping over the ridge and into the trees and got ten meters before diving out the way as she heard another crack of a rifle, and with the final crack she spotted the sniper half way up a tree about thirty meters away. He was readjusting his aim on her and Ashley dashed to the side as she caught the sound of another loud bang. But this time it was behind her and it was followed by something she never expected. A blinding light, a light which even if she didn't look at it hurt just to catch a glimpse of.

Clearly the hunter was caught completely off guard as he instantly covered his eyes and Queen saw her chance. Letting the familiar energy course through her she raised bother her arms and saw her hair stand on end with two lightning bolts blasting out. They connected with their target and the sniper was thrown to from the tree. Hitting the ground with a dull thud Queen smiled and gave a quick fist pump.

"Yes!"

However the hunter was up as quickly as he went down, now holding a rather large revolver which he fired once at Queen, giving the werewolf only just enough time to duck under the rounds as the strawberry blonde man advanced on her. Advancing on the werewolf, with only determination in his eyes. And in that second she, the werewolf, was on him grabbing his gun hand and forcing it into the air and then sweeping her feet in she threw him up and over onto the floor. Or that was the plan. He twisted his arm unnaturally and managed to land on his feet drawing another pistol from his coat firing again. Ashley dodged and tried to deliver a hit to his chest. But the hunter grabbed her arm and using her momentum he pulled her forward; Ashely in turn righted her posture and delivered a sweep to his feet which the human jumped over.

And from there they traded blows with throws, with every super powered strike Ashley delivered being deflected and the hunter either dodging her attacks or in some way taking them full on and turning them to his advantage contorting his boy painfully positions to get in range for a quick strike on her vital areas. Still Queen was caught off guard when he brought her in close for a head-butt on her crown and he took her momentary stunned reaction to reach into his trench coat and pull out a huge long machete that he swung at her wildly. It didn't take the super-fast werewolf much effort to dodge, but when he got her at a distant and drew his revolver again and in that moment managed to turn Queen's one sided beat down into a free for all shooting gallery. He kept her at range with the machete while took pock shots at her, quickly reloading from his belt, with one hand. This only lasted fifteen seconds before Ashley did a backflip and using her unpredictable move fired two bolts of lightning one hitting his arm and one in the chest. While he did not go down he did drop the gun and she swept in and delivered a swift kick to his jaw sending him skidding backwards. But he still didn't stay down.

"Impressive for a Lupo," he muttered wiping the blood from his lip and pulling something now from his pocket. A detonator.

Ashley looked around her and saw numerous small metal disks surrounding her in the mud. And she caught the Italian hunter's smug grin for a few seconds before it returned to a cold stare.

"Hey Lodivico," the voice of Vivien cried from beside him, placing her own pistol to his chest before a sudden explosion sent the hunter flying back twenty meters.

Ashley now looking up saw Vivien grinning at her blowing some smoke of the barrel of her gun. "Hey."

"What is in those things?"

"Rune ammo," the black haired girl explained with a sly but sadistic smile, before realising Queen was in the dark. "Oh pretty much magical bullets."

A groan however caught them off guard as Lodivico was slowly now pulling himself off the floor, his clothes and face covered in dark black soot. He stumbled for a second before flopping back onto his hands and knees. Still the sudden bright lights in the distance caused Ashley's blood to run cold.

The Everett hunters were here.

* * *

The werbear didn't waste any time attacking. Her charge on the blonde haired boy was both obvious as her attempt to nearly swallow him with her gigantic maw. Arthur however pushed himself against a nearby tree and flying through the rain landed on the beasts head, sliding down its back to Alpha and huntress: still looking like he had taken a trip through a meat grinder.

"You… I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU," the gigantic beast roared swinging its tree trunk sized arms around trying to claw all three of them in one strike.

Arthur however purely ducked, Alpha jumping backwards and Huntress with amazing timing and grace landing on her arm and firing a wave of rubber bullets accurately up her shoulder and into her neck. Still the hulking woman swung her arm throwing Huntress off and Alpha and Arthur took the chance to charge in deliver a few clear strikes to her gut. Arthur hit her in the ribs with the tips of his fingers, the werewolf leader giving a more powerful and direct strike to her gut. But it did little good, as she raised her fists up and smashed the ground sending both boys and mud flying backwards.

Arthur landed in a dull puddle covering him in dirt. "Ah mud in my wound… mud in my wound," he moaned clutching one of her gigantic scars, as it began to reseal itself. Still he managed to stand up panting as his numerous cuts and bruises began to slowly clot and fade.

Seeing this, the werebear slowed its charge and glowered at Arthur, her mind considering this new piece of information. "You're kidding me you can regen… rgen… FUCKING HEAL!"

Arthur now stood up and turned to the now infuriated, spacing his feet slightly apart with a small crouch and twirling his sword in hand held it above his head the tip pointed towards the werebear, as his free hand came up with an open palm facing her. "Indeed miss?"

The werebear froze on hear that one word, giving peter and Maria and time to rush out of her line of sight. "Miss," she mouthed "MISS!"

"Yes, I apologise I do not know your name," Arthur admitted with absolute calmness now relaxing his stance as he spoke in his even and polite tone, although his face told the two werewolves he was fighting back a lot of pain. "Miss..." he asked again just as politely as before?

"Are you kidding me," the werebear now roared taking slow deliberate steps towards Arthur causing him to back up against a very large tree. "You want to know my fucking name you brat! After everything your father did to me… y-you… y-ou… you…" the werebear began to mouth over and over as she leaned down to stare at Arthur in the eyes.

"Yes I do," Arthur said softly but with a touch of sadness now standing straight up and lowering his sword to the floor, "I want to make amends for what my father has done and…"

"NOTHING YOU EVER DO WILL MAKE UP FOR IT!"

And with that the werebear lunged at him her teeth sinking into Arthur's neck, shoulder and most of his upper arm, blood squirting from the blow, although Arthur raised his free hand and brought it back delivering a two finger jab into the werebears eyes. Now free, the beast roared in sudden surprise, as Arthur stumbled back clutching his wound, leaving an opening for Alpha and Huntress to strike at her from behind. Huntress landing on her back and firing rubber bullets into her spine, at the same time Alpha delivered a powerful punch to her jaw.

"Didn't anyone tell you to have manners," he cried as he landed on the other side of his opponent watching Maria roll off into the mud.

The Werebear however had finally snapped her yellow eyes flashing madly as she raised her fists and swung at Arthur once again missing as the boy somehow managed to jump with all his wounds onto her arms as it hit the base of the tree causing it to splinter and crack.

Leaning in Arthur looks at the werebear eyes causing the giant beast to freeze in shock a she looked into his green eyes and saw something… something, broken, angry and dark. "I am sorry," he whispered softly to her, a tear in his eyes. Raising his blade and twirling around, he swung it close to her head but missed it, and forced the blade straight into the shattered trunk of the large tree cutting what was left of it, clean in two. Jumping off the arm he flew up into the branches and grabbed the thickest and largest one and simply dangled from it. And slowly the huge tree began to creak and move as the half shattered, half severed trunk creaked and moaned and tilted towards the werebear. A tilt which transformed into a straight on fall as the werebear covered her eyes as she was immersed in the furs branches, the trunk coming down on her skull with a loud crack.

Alpha and Maria glanced at one another as they eased towards the tree, Maria helping Arthur out of the branches.

"That was an interesting take down," Maria commented with a raised eyebrow, Arthur nodding pleasantly in response.

The tree however rose sharply back up as the werebear stood up bleary eyed looking around as she tried readjust herself to her position. Or she would have if Maria had not fire two well places shots into her head keeling her over backwards onto the ground. And there she slowly began to shift back into her human form, her muscles shrinking, her fur evaporating, and her head morphing back from a semi recognisable bear into that of a rather stern but tough looking woman with long raven hair. She was still taller than all of them likely standing it at 6'8ft, but in her human form she looked more like a fitness athlete or model than a marauding monster. Indeed she looked almost peaceful.

"Arthur," a woman's voice called out, Vivien suddenly appearing in a puff of smoke with Ashley beside her as she threw her arms around her blood soaked brother. "Don't scare me like that… Arthur your wounds!"

Arthur looked down at himself, as his flesh somehow began to tug itself back together, its torn muscle reknitting itself millimetre by millimetre. He shrugged with a slightly pained smile "they are healing." Vivien however looked like he was going to strangle him for saying that.

"Never mind that," Queen stepped past the twins and looked at Alpha with a firm glare, "the hunters are here," her tone carrying the dread they all shared.

Alpha however simply shrugged and gently nudged the unconscious woman with his claws, "yeah we know although…" he began before Queen ran up to him and pointed back through the bushes and trees.

"No, our Hunters!"

Suddenly the lights of torches could be seen through the treeline, the low sounds of voices whispering easily caught by their super enhanced hearing.

"Oh great… Queen, find Scar." He began before turning around "Vivien I need you to…"

"Hey don't order me…" Vivien began before Arthur grabbed and covered her mouth.

"Vivien just do it," her brother stated with an apathetic look of exasperation.

Peter sighed at the hassle, wiping some of the accumulated moisture, from the rain, off his brow as he repeated his order, "Vivien 'please' find Scope and Gothina we need to…"

"You mean Kylie and Mikey?"

"Just do it," Alpha exclaimed angrily at Vivien's smug expression. "And Arthur…" he said stopping as he saw the blonde haired boy picking up the giant naked woman and throwing her over his shoulder, his face screwing up in pain as he rested her over where she and bitten him. "What are you doing?"

"I am not leaving her," he exclaimed, dropping to his knees as his body gave way, giving the now humans woman face a dunk in the mud.

Alpha nodded firmly, taking the woman off him and swiftly broke into a run: Arthur, Huntress and Queen following right behind.

* * *

The fire, the fire was everywhere. Derek was writhing in anger as he landed in the mud rolling from side to side trying desperately to concentrate through the flams and heat as it clawed away at his body and flesh, his healing factor completely incapable of fighting against the intensity of the flames. An intensity that was only growing brighter as Ernesto walked around him throwing another bottle of alcohol on the wolf lighting him up like a bonfire, singing a song in a thick Italian accent.

Derek tried to stand up but felt a huge kick in his chest as a blast metal struck him forcing him down: it wasn't silver and Ernesto knew this chuckling as he watched his prey struggle.

Derek however refused to scream, he refused to growl as she patted down his wounds more and more, concentrating through the pain and looking for that one slip up the Italian would make to allow him to shred him apart.

Ernesto though was being as smug as ever, leaning down to look into Scar's eyes grinning as he held out a shotgun at his face. "Do you want me to end it doggy? Want me to end your sofferenza?" And pulling another bottle from within his leather coat he took a swing of alcohol and laughed. "Sizzle, sizzle, lovely and fizzle!"

"Hey pasta bake," Mikey's voice came out as the werewolf charged him pulling out his camera over and over, blinding the man before sucker punching him in the gut and bringing his fist up to his jaw. Ernesto left the floor as a result and hit the muddy floor with a squelch. "Hey, hey are you alright," he then asked bending down to Scar who finally let out a long growl.

"You bitches," Ernesto then yelled jumping up pulling out a large desert eagle pistol hanging from his belt.

But then a foot smacked him in the forehead pressing him down into the mud, Gothina declaring "stay away from them you psycho!" She added an extra set of force to the hunters face forcing him under the mud with a sickening squelch.

Scope was soon with Scar, patting him along the back and helping him to roll through the wet mud to dampen the flames. It didn't take them long to get the fires out now Ernesto was down and out, and Scar was soon scrambling to his feet, his fur servery ruffled and signed, small patches of skin blacked skin visible here and there as he finally pulled himself up to his full height and now looked down at Ernesto who was once again getting to his feet.

Scope had to hold the seven foot werewolf back from pouncing on the unconscious man, who gurgled bubbles into the wet mud, as it smothered his face. "He is not worth it Scar, come on… we need to go."

"Yes… lets," said the smooth cocky voice of Vivien from behind them. She then added, "or you can stay here and let your hunters catch you?" And when he offered no response and merely glared at her she smiled and stepped off towards the sound of squelching footsteps.

"Hello Alpha," Scar managed to growl as he was propped up by Scope, while the other wolves arrived with Arthur, and a rather large naked women, slung over his shoulder. Scar was about to ask who it was before the lights of torches began to be seen through the tops of the trees.

"No time to explain everyone," Vivien commanded raising her arms and motioning to all of them, "gather around me now!" Following her orders they all got in close, Scar tried to object but was none the less dragged in close by Scope and Gothina as the wolves, Arthur and his sister was so close they could touch.

"Vivien you know this is dangerous," Arthur commented almost absently as he was sandwiched between his sister and Maria, glancing at the wolf behind him.

"I know… just someone catch me," his sister replied closing her eyes.

"Hey I think I see something over there," a male voice called, obviously from one of the hunters.

"Wait what is dangerous," Gothina managed to just say before everyone saw nothing but black, and they were gone, leaving only a trail of smoke from where the party of wolves and ex-hunters once stood.

Meanwhile the dazed Ernesto sat up and glanced around wiping the mud from his face as he chocked as some damp earth slip down his throat. "What… huh…" he called before hearing the voices of the approaching hunters. "Merda!"

* * *

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"All clear!"

The hunters lowered their weapons as they finally finished sweeping the woods. Ron had been right werewolves had defiantly been here and something… much bigger. But as Ron Argent sifted through the muddy ruins of what looked like a hobos camp she found quite a few small silver bullets.

"Did anyone fire their weapons," he demanded turning the slightly deformed ammunition over as he felt the cold rain through his kevlar bodysuit. When he was met with a murmur of no's and the fact that no one had directly spotted the werewolves the no-nonsense leader bounced the ammunition in his hand and headed back to the armoured cars waiting at the edge of the wood.

It had been another wild goose chase, just like last night. And by the looks of things those two wannabe hunters his men had encountered last night were still in town, considering one two of his men spotted a pair of figures fleeing the forest for the public car park, which pretty much meant they got away. If they had independent hunters operating in Everett it could easily get nasty, and dangerous. Still he was more concerned that the werewolves somehow just up and disappeared, especially considering on how swiftly they had been getting here after their supplier had tipped them off about the location of werewolves in these woods. Still as he left the shade of the forest and entered out into the full storm, feeling the water soak through o his skin he couldn't help but feel a pang of annoyance. He had dragged everyone out here in this for nothing, and it was bad enough he had ruined his daughters evening out. Still it was his duty, his families responsibility to leader the hunters, and that meant sacrifices.

Reaching the armoured car he climbed in and pulled off his mask, and let himself flop back against the cold metal chairs.

"I am hearing Ron that the werewolves got away," a cultured distinctly British man asked the hunter.

Looking across from him Ron stared at a rather out of place figure. Unlike the hunters he was not wearing the same Kevlar bodysuit or military equipment; in fact he wasn't even carrying a gun. He was in fact in a grey two piece suit, with a black tie, and his withered frame, and gaunt expression complete with his partially greying blue black hair he looked more in place at a board meeting then the back of an armoured military transport.

"Yeah," Ron finally replied letting out a long sigh and relaxing, "it looks like those hunters from last night got to them first… looks like some hobo's got caught in the crossfire."

The rather thin man mused at this as he pulled out a smartphone and a touch pen and began typing away "Any bodies? Any weapons fire?"

"None by our men," Ron admitted placing his hands together as he inspected the small silver bullet in his hand turning it over.

"Very well, I won't add anything to next week's order then," the Englishmen stated in a rather exasperated tone, placing his phone back into his coats pocket and going to stare out of the small grated window.

Ron however had just noticed something. "Say," he asked as he ran his fingers across a production number, "these look a lot like the bullets you sell us?" He threw the silver bullet towards the wiry man and let it fall into his lap with no noise whatsoever.

The Englishmen's face however tensed as he tried to pick up the bullet, yet it constantly slipped from his grasped as his hand shook. He finally managed to get it between his finger and thumb and held it up to eye level. "Hmmm, you could be right?" Slowly he began to turn the bullet over between his fingers and squinted at the ID number. "It likely came from our plant down in Brazil."

Ron frowned, "I am surprised Marcus… you told me you didn't sell to private contractors."

"We don't," Marcus replied sourly as placed the broken bullet in his pocket and scowled darkly, "rest assured Ron I will look into this."

Ron nodded and then sighed, "I don't like it Marcus, werewolves returning, that snake mutant, the spikes in attacks. Things are changing."

Marcus nodded as he pulled out his phone again and began to type away on it once more. "I can see what you mean old friend, things are changing." Still as typed he took a second to look up from his work and across at the drawn face of the middle aged hunter and gave a reassuring smile. "My old friend rest assured the Hopkins will back the Argents no matter what."

Ron serious face twitched for a moment into a smile before returning to his stoic and overly serious expression. "Thank you Marcus, it will be reassuring at least getting these rouge hunters under control: we can't have them bringing in the police."

"Heaven forbid," Marcus cried as if it was the worst thing imaginable: all the while typing away on his phone. "But rest assured I will find the hunters who did this Ron," he stopped typing for a moment and moved his interactive pen towards the send button. "Trust me I will."

And with that he sent the message: the recipient reading Lodivico Falco.

* * *

 **Authors Notes**

* * *

Well I am finally done with chapter 2, and I can move onto chapter 3. I have slightly rushed this chapter but I feel it set up everything I wanted it to do. Still I wanted to get it out on 1st of January as that is when I started this story, and I just wanted a sense continuity.

Either way enjoy ^^


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